Three in every five businesses struggle to manage cyber risk according to a new report from Barracuda Networks based on a poll of CIOs.
For this report, Ponemon Institute polled 1,917 IT security practitioners in the United States (522), the United Kingdom (372), France (329), Germany (425), and Australia (269). Respondents were involved in the management of their organisation’s IT security functions or activities.
Results show that many organisations find it hard to implement company-wide security policies such as authentication measures and access controls, with 49% of the smaller to mid-sized companies surveyed listing this as one of their top two governance challenges.
Further, just over a third (35%) of smaller companies worry that senior management doesn’t see cyberattacks as a significant risk, while larger companies are most likely to struggle with a lack of budget (38%) and skilled professionals (35%).
Many organisations have concerns about a lack of security and control over the supply chain and visibility into third parties with access to sensitive or confidential data.
Around one in 10 doesn’t have an incident response plan to turn to in the event of a successful breach.
Siroui Mushegian, CIO of Barracuda Networks, said that for many businesses today, a security incident of some kind is almost inevitable.
“What matters is how you prepare for, withstand, respond to, and recover from the incident,” said Mushegian. This is cyber resilience. Advanced, defense-in-depth security solutions will take you most of the way there, but success also depends on security governance — the policies and programs, leadership, and more that enable you to manage risk.”
She noted that when NIST updated its benchmark cybersecurity framework earlier this year, it added security governance as a strategic priority.
