Over Half of Global Firms Struggle to Assess Cyber Risk Exposure: Report
New research from global cybersecurity firm Trend Micro has revealed that 54 per cent of global organisations feel their cyber risk assessments are not sophisticated enough – exposing them to ransomware, phishing, IoT and other threats. Respondents also indicated that overly complex tech stacks and lack of awareness from leadership are exacerbating issues.
Many organizations are struggling with manual approaches to attack surface mapping (28 per cent), and 32 per cent report difficulty working with multiple tech stacks. This may explain why only around 40 per cent are able to accurately detail any one of the following based on risk assessments:
•Risk levels for individual assets
•Attack attempt frequency
•Attack attempt trends
•Impact of a breach on any particular area
•Industry benchmarks
•Preventative action plans for specific vulnerabilities
“We already knew that organizations are concerned about a fast-expanding digital attack surface with limited visibility. Now we know that they also need urgent help to discover and manage cyber risk across this environment. In many cases, the challenge is compounded by siloed point solutions. Organizations must search for a single platform that gives them the certainty and security they require”, said Sharda Tickoo, Technical Director at Trend Micro.
About one-third of the IT and business decision makers Trend Micro interviewed say that assessing risk is the main area of attack surface management they struggle with. As a result, over 80 per cent feel exposed to ransomware, phishing and IoT attacks.
The inability of organizations to accurately assess attack surface risk also keeps business leaders in the dark. Over half of respondents struggle to quantify risk exposure to leadership, and only 3 per cent believe their C-suite fully understands cyber risk at present.
There’s a clear opportunity here for organizations to leverage third-party expertise.
Two-fifths (39 per cent) of respondents are already invested in a platform-based approach to attack surface management, while half (50 per cent) of respondents say they’d like to do the same. Of those who’ve already made the move, improved visibility (38 per cent), faster breach detection (35 per cent) and accelerated response (34 per cent) are the most cited advantages.
