Study: Cyberattacks up 48 percent in 2014

The number of detected cyberattacks skyrocketed in 2014 — up 48 percent from 2013 — and they are costing companies more money, according to two global studies released Monday.

This year is expected to see 42.8 million cyberattacks, roughly 117,339 attacks each day, a study from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers found.

{mosads}Nearly all companies surveyed were hit by a cyberattack in 2014, costing them hundreds of thousands, potentially millions, of dollars.

“It is no surprise to find that as the number of information security incidents continues to mount, so do financial losses,” the authors of the study said.

The firm cited a number of major data security breaches in 2014 that drove up the financial impact for companies.

The number of organizations reporting a $20 million fallout after a cyberattack nearly doubled from 2013.

Security filings revealed that retail giant Target alone shelled out upwards of $150 million since its data breach during the 2013 holiday shopping season.

Another report from security software vendor Kaspersky Lab estimated an average data security incident costs a company $720,000.

Successful targeted attacks could cost a company nearly $2.54 million. Almost every company surveyed — 94 percent — had some type of cybersecurity incident in 2014, Kaspersky found. Only 12 percent experienced a targeted attack. Both numbers are up 3 percentage points from 2013.

But as PricewaterhouseCoopers found, the overall number of detected cyber incidents exploded in the past year.

Nearly a fourth of companies reported detecting 50 or more cyberattacks in the past 12 months, according to the firm.

“Cyber risks will never be completely eliminated,” the group warned.