Splunk Chief Strategy Advisor for Europe, James Hodge, emphasises the importance of cyber resilience for businesses and highlights which businesses are most at risk of attacks.
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Did you know that total worldwide cyber attacks against companies surged in 2024, with the average number of weekly attacks being 44% higher than in 2023, according to cybersecurity solutions company Check Point? Education was the most impacted sector, with weekly attacks surging 75% on an annual basis.
Much of this has been driven by an increase in multipurpose malware and infostealer attacks - which steal your sensitive information.
These attacks come at a significant cost to companies with businesses taking around 75 days on average to recover from most cyber incidents.
It has also become much easier and faster for cyber attackers to steal data. Palo Alto Networks’ threat research and intelligence division, Unit 42, found in 2021 that it took an average of 44 days for criminals to extract data, starting from the moment of security compromise.
This fell to 30 days in 2022 and only five days in 2023. Due to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence in 2024, this was slashed to just a few hours.
In this episode of The Big Question, Splunk’s Chief Strategy Advisor for Europe, James Hodge, talks about the importance of making cybersecurity resilience a priority among businesses, while shedding light on how cyber attacks can have different consequences in each industry
How much does the cyber threat cost Europe?
“€10 trillion is the estimated cost of the cyber threat in 2025,” James Hodge, Chief Strategy Advisor for Europe at Splunk, told Euronews.
“And by 2029, I think that's going to grow by 64%.”
Due to the digital nature of today’s world, Hodge added that cyber attacks can come with a “catastrophic consequence”, especially when they impact essential infrastructure.
In the EU, smaller businesses are often at higher risk of cyber threats.
“Businesses that are less than $250 million (€239.5m) of revenue are twice as likely to have a cyber breach than businesses that's over $5 billion (€4.8bn) of revenue,” Hodge explained.
“This is mainly because of different levels of investment in cyber protection, as well as different cyber resilience approaches.”
Industries most vulnerable to cyber attacks include education, government, healthcare, telecommunications and construction, according to Check Point.
Cost of cyber breaches far more than financial
The impacts of cyber security breaches are not only financial, but they often take a psychological toll on businesses as well. Attacks can harm client trust while also slowing the pace of innovation, as businesses ramp up cyber defences.
In order to succeed, businesses need to make cyber resilience one of their most important priorities, according to Hodge. This means that innovation can be maintained without being overly impacted by the financial and psychological costs of cyber security failure.
Planning for the aftermath of a cyberattack is also important, as safety mechanisms aren’t a “magic silver bullet”, said Hodge. “When a business starts to think about cybersecurity, they first should be thinking cross-functionally on what could go wrong, what is the impact of this? And let's plan for that failure.”
“If people don't take cyber resilience as the most important thing that they can be doing, they're going to fail as a business,” he warned.
The Big Question is a series from Euronews Business where we sit down with industry leaders and experts to discuss some of the most important topics on today’s agenda.
Watch the video above to see the full discussion with James Hodge.
