The rapid advancement of technology and growing capabilities of the internet has brought us to a much more sophisticated level across different areas: healthcare, business and even our own homes. We’re constantly connected through things like advanced cloud file storage at work to intelligent home assistants in our kitchens. One of the unfortunate trade-offs with our progress includes increased security risks. These connections give hackers more opportunities to invade our privacy and steal our information.

With all of this risk, however, some people don’t seem to take the precaution of protecting themselves. This is mainly because some simply don’t believe any sort of cyber attack could happen to them so some don’t take the necessary steps to effectively secure their data.

Varonis collected some statistics about the likelihood of a cyber attack compared to other things people find less than likely. For example, did you know that you’re more likely to encounter a cyber attack than you are to experience a home burglary? Here are a few stats that may surprise you:

·  1 in 4 chance of experiencing a cyber attack

·  1 in 50 chance of experiencing a home burglary or invasion

·  1 in 100 chance of having your tax return audited

·  1 in 3,000 chance of getting a hole-in-one

·  1 in 14,6000 chance of getting struck by lightning

There are lots of factors that contribute to a cyber attacks high likeliness. For instance, there are 230,000 new malware samples appearing every day. This goes to show that protecting your personal and work systems is well worth the time since attacks are much more prevalent than one would think. Take a look at some other alarming stats:

·  There’s an estimated cyber attack every 39 seconds

·  There’s been 3.8 million records stolen every single day since 2013

·  The average data breach cost is predicted to exceed $150 million by 2020

Consider walking through a few of these stats and comparisons with any unconvinced clients or even skeptic family members to encourage implementation of a heightened cybersecurity plan.