EDITOR’S QUESTION
WHAT MESSAGE WOULD
YOU GIVE TO BUSINESS
LEADERS WHO HAVE
NO INTENTION OF
IMPROVING THEIR
CYBER DEFENCES OVER
THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Report reveals one-third
of business leaders not
intending to improve
overall defences in the
next 12 months.
surveyed understand the risk that vulnerable
software poses to their business. their software security or plan to over the
next 12 months.
The report indicates that many business
leaders report that they do not understand
these commom cybersecurity threats: While there may be some shift in
awareness, not all business leaders have
woken up to the risks of the evolving cyber
threat landscape. One-third of business
leaders surveyed revealed that they plan
to take no new steps to improve their
organisations’ overall cybersecurity in the
next 12 months. While high profile breaches
do not in themselves prompt great change
in behaviour, when confronted with the
possibility of personal accountability in the
event of a breach, executives are more likely
to take action. More than a third of the
business leaders surveyed said the personal
risk to executives outstripped compliance as
a driver for board members.
V •
•
•
•
•
•
The Securing the Digital Economy report
highlights how investment in digital
transformation is rapidly accelerating, with
around one in five business leaders indicating
that their software budget had increased
50% or more over the past three years to
support digital transformation projects. The lack of understanding around cyber
risk may be attributed in part to a lack of
awareness of successful cyberattacks and
their causes. Because business leaders are
unaware of either the breaches themselves
or the underlying causes, they are not
compelled to learn about or defend against
similar threats their company could face.
For example:
However, the increased software
development investment has not translated
to greater security budgets or awareness
of the security risks insecure software
introduces: only 50% of business leaders We are seeing some shift in awareness, of
the 33% who indicated that a cyberattack
on another company had led their business
to rethink its approach to cybersecurity,
many have either taken steps to improve
eracode Inc, a leader in securing the
world’s software, has released new
research revealing the widening gap
between software creation and software
security, with the rush to innovate outpacing
the urgency to secure the process.
28
INTELLIGENTCIO
Vulnerable software
Ransomware
Vulnerable open source components
Phishing attacks
Malicious employee activity
DDoS attacks
Articulating the potential brand damage for
senior executives from a data breach and the
risk to their job security was recommended
by 38% and 35% of business leaders
surveyed, respectively, as a way to engage
a board on cybersecurity, compared to
just 29% who suggested that highlighting
the potential fines of data protection
regulations, like GDPR.
www.intelligentcio.com