Key Takeaways:
- Sophos survey found that 93% of organizations globally find some essential security operation tasks challenging.
- 75% of respondents stated they have challenges identifying the root cause of an incident, leaving them vulnerable to further malicious activity.
- Over half of respondents stated that cyberattacks are keeping them up at night.
Sophos, a global leader in cybersecurity, has released a new survey report, “The State of Cybersecurity 2023: The Business Impact of Adversaries on Defenders.” The report has found that organizations around the world are facing significant challenges in executing essential security operation tasks, such as threat hunting, making them vulnerable to cyber threats. The report has highlighted some key findings:
Challenges in Identifying Root Causes:
The report found that 93% of organizations globally find the execution of some essential security operation tasks, such as understanding how an attack happened, challenging. 75% of respondents stated they have challenges identifying the root cause of an incident, making proper remediation difficult and leaving organizations vulnerable to repetitive and/or multiple attacks by the same or different adversaries. This is especially concerning since 71% of those surveyed also reported challenges with timely remediation.
Challenges in Signal Investigation and Prioritization:
In addition, the report found that 71% of organizations have challenges understanding which signals/alerts to investigate, and the same percent reported challenges prioritizing investigations. These challenges can result in organizations overlooking critical signals and missing out on identifying potential attacks.
Cyber Threats Too Advanced for Organizations:
52% of organizations surveyed stated that cyber threats are now too advanced for them to deal with on their own. This highlights the need for organizations to take cybersecurity seriously and implement robust measures to protect against potential threats.
Impact on IT Teams:
The report has also found that cyber threats are impacting the IT team’s work on other projects. 64% of respondents wish the IT team could spend more time on strategic issues and less time on firefighting. 55% of respondents said that the time spent on cyber threats has impacted the IT team’s work on other projects.
Organizations’ Approach to Cybersecurity:
The report found that 94% of organizations are working with external specialists to scale their operations, but the majority still remain involved with managing threats rather than taking a fully outsourced approach. This suggests that while organizations recognize the need for external expertise, they are still trying to handle cybersecurity themselves.
Commenting on the report, John Shier, field CTO, commercial, Sophos, said, “Only one fifth of respondents considered vulnerabilities and remote services a top cybersecurity risk for 2023, yet the ground truth is that these are routinely exploited by Active Adversaries. This cascade of operational issues means that these organizations aren’t seeing the full picture and are potentially acting on incorrect information. There’s nothing worse than being confidently wrong.”
The report highlights the need for organizations to take cybersecurity seriously and implement robust measures to protect against potential threats. Sophos suggests that having external audits and monitoring can help eliminate blind spots and look at organizations the way an attacker does. Eliminating the guesswork and applying defensive controls based on actionable intelligence will let IT teams focus on enabling the business instead of trying to douse the eternal flame of active attacks.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Sophos report has highlighted some critical challenges faced by organizations when it comes to cybersecurity. Organizations need to take a proactive approach to protect against cyber threats and implement robust measures to identify potential attacks. Failure to do so can lead to significant consequences, both in terms of the organization’s financial and reputational standing, and the safety of its customers and employees.
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