Cybercrime is big business. A recent study by Atlas VPN found that cybercriminals rake in more than $1.5 trillion in revenue annually — triple the earnings of retail giant Walmart. If you count all the global costs of cybercrime, it would be equivalent to the world’s third-largest economy, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.

We’ve been talking about the cybersecurity threats to look out for in 2021 and the tools and services you’ll need to protect your applications and data. Now comes the question of how much budget to allocate to cybersecurity in the coming year.

A new report paints a grim picture of industrial control system (ICS) cyber security. According to the Claroty Biannual ICS Risk & Vulnerability Report, 365 ICS vulnerabilities were disclosed in the first half of 2020, 75 percent of which were rated as high or critical using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). These vulnerabilities were most prevalent in ICSs used in critical infrastructure, including the energy and critical manufacturing sectors.

In our last post, we discussed six cybersecurity threats that will likely have the greatest impact on organizations in 2021. Phishing campaigns will continue to proliferate, and many will exploit the fear and uncertainty that continues to surround the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts are also predicting “Nigerian Prince” scams preying on individuals and businesses looking for economic stimulus payments.