Miscommunications In IT Security Lead To Cybersecurity Incidents In 80% Indian Cos: Report

New report suggests that more than half of top-tier managers in India (80 per cent) admit that a miscommunication with the IT department or IT security team has resulted in at least one cybersecurity incident in their organisations. 

In terms of personal attitudes, the majority of non-IT executives cited a diminished sense of cooperation between different teams (48 per cent) and said the situation makes them question their colleagues’ skills and abilities when communication with their IT-security employees was unclear (43 per cent), mentioned the report.

The recent Forrester analytics survey says that companies spend an average of 37 days and of USD 2.4 million to detect and recover from a cybersecurity breach. To determine how much mutual understanding between executives and information security teams affects company’s cyber resilience, Kaspersky conducted a global survey of more than 1,300 business leaders. 

“Clear communication between a company’s executives and IT security management is a prerequisite for corporate business security,” said Alexey Vovk, Head of Information Security at Kaspersky. 

According to the results of the study, 100 per cent of non-IT respondents experienced miscommunications regarding IT security. With regards to consequences, most often a breakdown in communications leads to serious projects delays (81 per cent) and cybersecurity incidents (80 per cent). Almost one-third of respondents (46 per cent and 45 per cent respectively) even said that they had even encountered these issues more than once. Among other negative effects are a wasted budget, the loss of a valued employee and deteriorating relationships between teams – situations that occurred to 74 per cent of respondents.

In addition to worsening business indicators, unclear communication with IT-security employees also affects the emotional state of the team and makes executives question IT-security employees' skills and abilities. Also, 48 per cent executives admit that misunderstandings make them lose confidence in the business’ safety and 37 per cent of them find this situation makes them nervous, which affects their work performance.

“The challenge here is to put oneself in the others’ position, to anticipate and prevent serious misunderstandings. This means that, on the one hand, CISO should know basic business language to better explain the existing risks and need for safety measures. On the other hand, business should also understand that information security in the 21st century is an integral part of business and budgeting for it is an investment in protecting company assets,” Vovk added.