Over 25% of cyber losses for large companies are machine identity related
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Apr 2020
The economic impact of poorly protected machine identities cost $51bn to $72bn in losses to the worldwide economy could be eliminated through the proper management and protection of machine identities.
A new report prepared by Venafi, a provider of machine identity protection, and AIR Worldwide, said cyber criminals routinely target machine identities and their capabilities because they are often poorly protected.
Once compromised, machine identities are powerful tools for attackers, allowing them to hide malicious activity, evade security controls and steal a wide range of sensitive data.
Machines control the flow of all types of sensitive data, help shape innovation and are fundamental to the way all businesses operate. As a result, the way in which they connect and authorise communication makes them a primary security risk for organisations.
Venafi vice president security strategy and threat intelligence Kevin Bocek said, “Unfortunately, many businesses are relying on processes and techniques from over 20 years ago, which poorly protect machine identities and, as AIR Worldwide found, can result in billions of dollars of loses.
Mr Bocek said, “Digital transformation is dependent on cloud, microservices and APIs, and all of this requires the authentication and privacy that machine identities provide. Cyber criminals understand that breaking this link means hitting the jackpot.”
AIR Worldwide’s estimates were obtained by combining cyber event data sets with assessments of upward of 100,000 firms’ performance in various areas of cyber security. The firm’s methodology took company size and industry into consideration when calculating economic loss estimates. A