Security professionals are well aware that malware can be costly, but research from the Ponemon Institute posits that false malware alerts can drain an organization's resources as well, with an average of $1.27 million spent annually in response to “inaccurate and erroneous intelligence.”
Organizations waste approximately 395 hours per week “chasing erroneous alerts,” according to “The Cost of Malware Containment” report, sponsored by Damballa.
While companies average about 17,000 malware alerts weekly, only four percent are investigated and only 19 percent are reliable. Ponemon found that 40 percent of infections go undetected.
The research also revealed that companies spend about 198.8 hours weekly looking into infections and about 229.9 hours weekly “cleaning or fixing infected devices,” which can put a strain on an organization's resources.
The dual challenges of detection accuracy and response speed are expected to grow as malware attacks increase.
