Broker Check

The State of Cyber Resilience, and How to Improve It

April 21, 2020

The results of Accenture's annual State of Cyber Resilience Survey have been posted on Cyber Security Intelligence. 4,644 executives of companies with revenues of over $1 billion from 16 countries worldwide responded. Some of the findings:

  • Compared to last year, cyber attacks were down 11% and security breaches dropped 27%.
  • Almost 11% of an average company's IT budget is spent on cyber security.
  • 84% of companies spend more than 20% of their cyber security budgets on artificial intelligence and machine learning, up from 67% three years ago. 
  • Companies experience an average of 22 security incidents annually.

There is  a gap between the best and worst performers in threat detection, adverse impact and downtime. The differences are expressed in four ways:

  1. Metrics - top companies value speed of detection, response and recovery. Less efficient companies are more concerned with outcomes.
  2. Speed of recovery - 83 % of leading companies experience little or no impact from security incidents.
  3. Reduced impacts - 55% of top companies experience impacts of cyber attacks lasting more than a day; 93% of less advanced companies have long lasting impacts. These companies also have a higher percentage of regulatory violations and fines.
  4. Collaboration - top companies work with law enforcement, government and cybersecurity professionals.

Concentration on speed, value and maintenance leads to better results.