Cybersecurity Still A Challenge, And Improving Resiliency Is Essential – Forbes
The number of cyberattacks continue to rise year-over-year and companies are worrying more about … [+]
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As 2021 draws to a close, cybercrime remains one of the dominant topics of concern for organizations. In fact, according to our research, the number of cyberattacks continue to increase (up 31% in 2021 over 2020) and companies are worrying more about indirect attacks — successful breaches to the organization through the supply chain— which have increased from 44% to 61%. As a result, security investment continues to also go up, with more than 82% of our survey respondents saying their IT security budgets have increased in the last year.
The picture isn’t all gloomy. Respondents in our research have more optimism in their cybersecurity programs than they previously had, with 70% expressing confidence that their organization is actively protected by their cybersecurity program (up from 60% last year). Executives in roles such as the CEO or CFO, however, have less confidence than their risk and security peers, causing levels of friction internally in many organizations instead of all sides being focused on the threat at hand.
Our research identified four broad approaches to cyber resilience across businesses: Business Blockers, who prioritize cyber security over alignment with business strategy; Cyber Risk Takers, who prioritize business growth and are willing to accept a higher level of cyber risk to achieve it; the Vulnerable, who have immature cybersecurity operations and a level of risk that is not aligned with business strategy; and Cyber Champions, who prioritize growth and speed to market, are willing to accept a higher level of risk, and have cyber security strategies that are fully aligned with this approach. While no strategy can fully eliminate all risks in this space, the Cyber Champions are successful in at least three out of four cyber resilience performance criteria— better at stopping attacks, finding, and fixing breaches faster and reducing their impact.
It matters where organizations fall within these cyber quadrants—there’s money on the table. Business Blockers stand to reduce their cost of breaches by 48%, Cyber Risk Takers by 65% and the Vulnerable by 71% if they increased their performance to Cyber Champion levels. The key to success is striking a balance between excelling at cyber resilience and focusing the security efforts on the elements critical to achieving the overall business strategy. Having a common focus and set of priorities embedding security into key business operations also helps to align the executives across the functions.
There are several ways to reach the level of peak cybersecurity performance. Giving the Chief …….