For our recent cybersecurity research report, we surveyed more than 1,250 IT and security senior executives, managers and practitioners to explore security evolution and maturity amid emerging technology adoption and evolving business needs. Some of the results were surprising and should be used as a wakeup call for organizations to ensure they understand their security posture not only from a technical standpoint but also from a business strategy and organizational standpoint.
Only 30% of those surveyed were confident that their organization will avoid a major business altering security event in the coming years. Contrast that with the findings that 60% expect a major security event to happen. Their skepticism is healthy: business continues to entwine people, devices, data and services into what Gartner Fellow, David Cearley calls “The Intelligent Digital Mesh.” Demand drives continuous innovation, and the resulting technology adoption offers a competitive advantage, yet introduces significant risk in the form of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, potential exploits, and disastrous data breaches. Our report explores this relationship, what keeps practitioners up at night, and what drives their decisions.
The FutureWatch report covers financial, legal, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation and other firms across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, revealing an appetite for emerging technology, managing security concerns, board-level intervention, and the beginnings of a paradigm shift in cybersecurity thinking and approaches.
The report covers how organizations are deploying the cloud, IoT and artificial intelligence, and which pose the greatest risks to the business today, and in the future. Cyber risk is now a business issue with board-level visibility and growing spend. The report uncovers which security threats are most concerning to executives, and the top challenges they face securing budget, reporting security status, and keeping in line with regulators. The report also exposes a need for companies to move from current prevention-technology focused security programs, to a more elastic paradigm based on threat-focused, proactive hunting and predictive response. A paradigm shift that can dramatically reduce business risk.
Along with the FutureWatch report, we have developed a Business Risk Index Tool. Based on key risk factors such as adoption of technology, security maturity and investment, and industry involvement, the tool provides a quick snapshot of top risks, mitigation recommendations, and peer comparison. Click this link to complete the Business Risk Index and receive your custom report.
References
- https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-10-15-gartner-identifies-the-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2019
