A new term has emerged in the tech industry: “cybersecurity debt.” Similar to technical debt, cybersecurity debt refers to the accumulation of unaddressed security bugs and outdated systems resulting from inadequate investments in cybersecurity services.
Delaying these expenditures can provide short-term financial gains, but long-term repercussions can be severe, causing greater dangers and exponential costs.
What causes cybersecurity debt?
Cybersecurity debt happens when organizations don’t update their systems frequently, ignoring software patches and neglecting security improvements for short-term financial gains. Slowly, this leads to a backlog of bugs that threat actors can abuse- leading to severe consequences.
Contrary to financial debt that accumulates predictable interest, cybersecurity debt compounds in uncertain and hazardous ways. Even a single ignored bug can cause a massive data breach, a regulatory fine that can cost millions, or a ransomware attack.
A 2024 IBM study about data breaches cost revealed that the average data breach cost had increased to $4.9 million, a record high. And even worse, 83% of organizations surveyed had suffered multiple breaches, suggesting that many businesses keep operating with cybersecurity debt. The more an organizati
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