Eighty per cent of the security leaders worldwide believe it is likely their enterprise will experience a cyberattack this year, but many organizations are struggling to keep pace with the threat environment, a report said.

New and evolving threats combined with persistent resource challenges limit organizations’ abilities to defend against cyber intrusions, according to the second instalment 2017 State of Cyber Security Study, released by Isaca, a global technology association.

More than half (53 per cent) of survey respondents reported a year-over-year increase in cyberattacks for 2016, representing a combination of changing threat entry points and types of threats:

•    IoT overtook mobile as primary focus for cyber defences as 97 per cent of organizations see rise in its usage. As IoT becomes more prevalent in organizations, cyber security professionals need to ensure protocols are in place to safeguard new threat entry points.

•    Sixty-two per cent reported experiencing ransomware in 2016 but only 53 per cent have a formal process in place to address it—a concerning number given the significant international impact of the recent WannaCry ransomware attack.

•    Malicious attacks that can impair an organization’s operations or user data remain high in general (78 per cent of organizations reporting attacks).

Additionally, fewer than 1 in 3 organizations (31 per cent) say they routinely test their security controls, and 13 per cent never test them. Sixteen per cent do not have an incident response plan.
“There is a significant and concerning gap between the threats an organization faces and its readiness to address those threats in a timely or effective manner,” said Christos Dimitriadis, Isaca board chair and group head of information security at Intralot.

“Cyber security professionals face huge demands to secure organizational infrastructure, and teams need to be properly trained, resourced and prepared.”

The cyber security resource problem

This year’s survey respondents indicated that, while cyber security is a priority for enterprise leadership, roadblocks facing cyber security professionals remain.

The good news: more organizations than ever now employ a chief information security officer—65 per cent, up from 50 per cent in 2016. However, security leaders continue to struggle to fill open cyber security positions, as part 1 of this year’s State of Cyber Security report indicated, and nearly half (48 per cent) of respondents don’t feel comfortable with their cyber team’s ability to address anything beyond simple cyber security issues. Additionally, more than half of all respondents say cyber security professionals lack an ability to understand the business.

Though training is critically needed to address these skill shortages, 1 in 4 organizations have training budgets of less than $1,000 per cyber security team member. While overall cyber security budgets remain strong, fewer organizations are increasing their budgets this year. About half will see budget increases, down from 61 per cent in 2016.

“The rise of CISOs in organizations demonstrates a growing leadership commitment to securing the enterprise, which is an encouraging sign,” said Dimitriadis.

“But that’s not a cure-all. With the number of malicious attacks increasing, organizations can’t afford a resource slowdown. Yet with so many respondents showing a lack of confidence in their teams’ ability to address complex issues, we know there is more that must be done to address the urgent cyber security challenges faced by all enterprises,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service