Research shows network threat protection significantly reduces the cost of downtime

McAfee announced new data outlining how implementing network-based Intrusion Prevention Solutions (IPS) can drastically reduce the costs associated with security downtime. The report entitled, “Reducing Downtime Costs with Network-Based IPS” (pdf) written by Infonetics Research, looks at revenue and employee productivity losses due to DoS (Denial of Service) attacks and malware affecting clients, servers, and the network.

Businesses of all sizes are faced with the challenge of securing their network from threats, while keeping the network up and running. The report found that total security downtime costs for large organizations surpasses $30M and up to 2.2 percent of annual revenue. For small organizations the cost was just over $30K (0.4 percent of revenue), with medium organizations topping $225K (0.5 percent of revenue).

The report data also showed that organizations that have not yet deployed network-based IPS will see roughly the following gains when moving to implement network-wide network based IPS:

— DOS attacks: 65% reduction in downtime hours
— Server malware: 50% reduction in downtime hours
— Client malware: 40% reduction in downtime hours