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Another important finding relates to the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence by both threat actors and defenders. The survey found that feelings are mixed as IT professionals learn to navigate this new industry game-changer. The results of the survey are featured in the Cybersecurity Survey Report 2024: Navigating the New Frontier of Cyber Challenges.
“Cybersecurity attacks are widespread and more sophisticated, and as a result, are shaping business and IT strategies,” said Chris McKie, VP, Product Marketing-Security at Kaseya. “IT professionals are navigating this new frontier as they try to find a balance between cybersecurity needs against hybrid workforces, dependency on cloud-based applications and services, and the role of artificial intelligence in cyberattacks.”
People are the Problem
An alarming 89% of respondents cited a lack of training or bad user behavior as their main cybersecurity problem. User-related security issues cause the most distress for IT professionals with poor user practices and gullibility (45%) and lack of end-user cybersecurity training (44%) as the root causes for cybersecurity problems. When asked which cybersecurity issues have impacted their business, phishing ranked first at 58%, followed by computer viruses or malware at 44% and business email compromise at 34%.
AI – All Hype?
Cybercriminals are leveraging advances in AI technology to launch more sophisticated cyberattacks at a faster pace than ever before. However, its role in cybersecurity is highly debated with critics questioning its current limitations and ever-evolving cybercriminal tactics. More than half of survey participants say they believe AI will help them be more secure. But one-third of the IT professionals surveyed said they’re unsure about the impact AI may have on their company’s security. More research and clarity around the benefits and limitations of AI as a cybersecurity tool is needed.
Ransomware Payouts Decline
The survey found that fewer companies are paying ransomware demands – with only 11% claiming to have done so. The reason? Increased investment in backup and recovery technologies have likely minimized the impact of attacks showing the importance of these tools as part of robust backup and disaster recovery strategies. A growing awareness that paying the ransom is poor practice may be another reason.
Tools to Fight Cybercrime
According to the survey, the most widely adopted cybersecurity frameworks are NIST (40%) and Zero Trust (36%). There is a trend in rising security maturity in response to increasingly sophisticated threats. Respondents have rigorously implemented an array of security solutions with antivirus software (87%), email/spam protection (79%), and file backup (70%) topping the list. Three out of five respondents have an incident response (IR) plan in place – but follow-through is needed. Only 37% of those surveyed reported that they confirm the efficacy of their plan with periodic drills, down from 46% last year.
Another weapon in the fight against cybercrime is pentesting. More than two-thirds of respondents test at least twice per year, and more than one-third test at least three times each year. The major challenges around pentest adoption are cost and lack of budget (58%), resource limitations (18%) and IT staffing issues (12%).
As cyberattacks have risen, so has the adoption of cyber insurance with coverage now at 61% compared to 27% in 2023. Moreover, 41% of organizations are planning to invest in cyber insurance in the next 12 months.
Investments in Cybersecurity
IT budgets are stable. Over 80% of respondents said that they believe their IT security budget will remain the same, or even grow, in the next year. Aside from cyber insurance, IT professionals anticipate investing in cybersecurity, specifically cloud security (33%), automated pentesting (27%), network security (26%), security awareness training (26%) and vulnerability assessment (26%). Endpoint detection and response (EDR) and managed SOC/MDR also were on the list.
The IT professionals surveyed had headquarters in North America (87%), UK & EU (9%) and APAC/NZ (3%). Most of their company’s annual revenue ranged from $1M to $10M, and had 101-to 500 employees.
