VMWare a software innovator has released a cybersecurity threat survey report on the United Kingdom. The report on carbonblack.com found, based on responses from 251 executives:
- 98% said attack volumes had increased in the last twelve months.
- 99% said their businesses had one or more security breaches in the last twelve months (average number of breaches was 63!)
- 96% said attacks had become more sophisticated.
- 6% said they planned to increase cybersecurity spending.
Security professionals are using an average of more than eight tools in reacting to emerging threats.
A supplemental survey of over 1,000 respondents including the United States, Singapore and Italy found similar but slightly lower percentages have seen increased attacks. 84% of these respondents reported gaps in disaster planning; 45% said the gaps were significant. COVID-19 and working from home have made problems worse, with issues reported by 70% to 89% of respondents. The issues include increases in COVID-19 malware, IoT exposure and phishing attacks.
According to cybersecurity strategist Rick McElroy of VMware, survey. results suggest security teams must be working with business leaders to shift the balance of power from attackers to defenders; remove complexity of the current response model; and build security into the enterprise.
It's hard to see how this can be done without increased spending on cybersecurity. Now that the threat has been acknowledged, it's time to do something about it.