New study finds IT professionals lack confidence in ability to detect, contain cyberbreaches
The National
LogRhythm, a security intelligence Company, has released its annual benchmark survey, which measures the cybersecurity perceptions and practices of organisations in the United States, United Kingdom, and Asia-Pacific regions. Among its top findings, the new research study, Cybersecurity: Perceptions & Practices, found that less than half of all organizations were able to detect a major cybersecurity incident within one hour. Even more concerning, less than one-third said that even if they detected a major incident, they would be unable to contain it within an hour, the firm said in a press statement. The survey revealed that, on average, companies employ 12 cybersecurity professionals in their organization. However, more than half of the respondents said that they employ 10 or fewer professionals on their teams. Special threat detection programs are another indicator of security maturity. This study found that most decision makersâmore than 70 percent of respondentsâhave programs in place to detect specific threats, such as ransomware, insider or employee threats, and denial of service attacks. The vast majority of IT decision makersâ95 percentâalso use security software to prevent and react to threats. And more than a quarter deploy at least 10 security software solutions to manage security threats. When it comes to confidence levels, about half of security decision makers believe that a determined hacker can still breach their organization. In fact, over one-third reported that their company has experienced a breach in the past yearâranging from 29 percent in the United States to 39 percent in the Asia-Pacific region. When specifically asked about level of confidence, these decision makers revealed that they have only moderately positive confidence in their cybersecurity measures and abilitiesâsuggesting an attitude that is more hopeful than truly confident. Similarly, most IT executivesâover 60 percentâare only somewhat confident that their security software can detect all major breaches. Likewise, they are only moderately confident that they can protect their companies from hackers. There are many factors that enable a security team to quickly detect and respond to an incident, including technology, process, programs, and people. When it comes to technology, a strong majority (nearly 80 percent) of IT executives said that a platform for security management, analysis, and response is beneficialâthough only about a third rate such a platform as very beneficial. This response may reinforce the notion that true security confidence cannot be created with technology alone. When asked to consider how their organization is operating from a Threat Lifecycle Management perspectiveâas an approach that includes discovery, qualification, neutralization and recovery from cyberattacksâIT executives were not overly optimistic. About a third of all respondents reported that they need help at virtually all stages in the TLM framework, especially detecting, investigating, neutralizing, and recovering from cyberthreats. Overall, one-third of executives allocate 10 percent or less of their IT budget to security. Regionally, the U.S. had the lowest rate, and Asia-Pacific the highest. When asked about their comfort level with security funding, 57% of IT executives indicated they are moderately comfortable with their companies’ level of security funding; however, nearly a quarter said they are not comfortable. >From a regional perspective, executives in the United States were less likely to think the level of their security funding is appropriate.
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