Bitdefender found out in their recent research that unless the industry takes note and learns to better communicate, it doesn’t matter what tools are available, there will always be gaps — which cybercriminals will be well placed to fill.
This yearly research “explores, in detail, the gap between how security decision makers and infosec professionals view the current security landscape and highlights the changes they know they will need to make in the upcoming months and years”.
Bitdefender’s team have a comprehensive global research that provides insight around businesses failed attempts to prepare for a remote working situation, and the frustration that CSIOs and IT support workers are forced to deal with”, surveying 6,700 Infosec professionals globally including 300+ ANZ professionals, underscores some sobering security trends including;
Key Findings:
38% of IT staff feel that leaders fail to grasp the concept of cyber-attacks, while 34% of IT workers believe employees suffer the same issue
28% of CSIOs believe leaders don’t understand the scale at which security needs to grow
33% of IT workers felt that business leaders failed to understand that cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility – not just IT’s
29% of IT support workers believe employees don’t understand that cybersecurity solutions are not entirely fool proof.
The figures point to a disconnect internally, one where IT teams are being viewed as a band aid solution across the workplace, with the stats obviously alarming, clearly highlighting an issue at top-level that bleeds to bottom. The issue is ultimately made worse when factoring in the ongoing threats of cyberwarfare, pertaining to issues around China after an alleged attempted attack just a few short months ago.
Indeed, in the face of increasingly complex attacks as well as the marked increase sophisticated state-sponsored cyberwarfare, Infosec professionals are demanding are overwhelmed, outmatched and demanding more from their business.
Infosec professionals believe change is needed when it comes to communicating in the future
To increase investment it is important to communicate cyber risk to the business needs to change dramatically.
The threat of cyberwarfare is a concern for infosec professionals, and there is a need to encourage business leaders to understand the risks and the extent of damage that can be done. With cyberwarfare garnering more and more media attention, it’s never been more important to address the threat.
The C-Suite is most concerned about their business being susceptible to a cyberwarfare attack
When asked do they believe that state cyberwarfare is a threat to your organisation?
A significant portion of CISOs and CIOs believe that the state of cyberwarfare is a threat to their organisation (71%). This is a figure however falls to 63% amongst those in the infosec a professional.
Over a fifth of infosec professional (21%) said that cyberwarfare / nation state attacks have been the most challenging issues / topics / threats / subjects for business leaders to understand over the last few years. However, this number jumps to almost a quarter of those in CISO and CIO positions (24%).
50% of infosec professionals (50%) expect the increase of cyberwarfare will be detrimental to the economy within the next 12 months.
(Image Courtesy: news.law.fordham.edu)