Most firms not ready for cyber threats

More than half of global businesses are not confident they will effectively handle a cyber attack, according to a new report.

About 30 per cent of companies that have cyber attack response plans in place have not tested or updated them in the past year or more, said a report released yesterday by cyber-security company FireEye based in California.

Nearly 51 per cent of organisations “do not believe they are ready for, or would respond well to, a cyber attack or breach event”, said Eric Ouellet, global security strategist at FireEye. For about 63 per cent of the organisations, “Finding a balance between cyber-security and operational requirements is a global challenge.”

Cyber criminals stole more than $1 trillion (Dh3.67tn) globally last year. The Middle East and North Africa’s share accounted for about 20 per cent – Dh734 billion – of the money stolen, according to cyber-security company Z Services in the UAE.

Cyber-security expense, which was valued at Dh23bn in Mena last year, is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of nearly 15 per cent over the next five years, according to market researcher Mordor Intelligence.

Nearly nine in 10 organisations believed the cyber threat will “stay the same or even worsen in 2020”, according to FireEye. The top three industries that are likely to be prime targets are finance and banking, technology and government.

The report is based on an online survey, conducted during July and August, of more than 800 senior IT executives across companies in North America, Europe and Asia. The report revealed the biggest concerns for companies during an attack are loss of sensitive data, the effect on customers and operational disruptions. To address these concerns, more than 75 per cent of the organisations plan to increase their cyber-security budget next year.

“Organisations most commonly expressed plans to increase cyber-security spending by 1 per cent to 9 per cent next year over 2019 allocations,” said Mr Ouellet.

Almost 40 per cent of respondents from the US indicated plans to increase cyber-security budgets next year, compared to 30 per cent of UK respondents and 22 per cent in South Korea.

Globally, companies are allocating their cyber-security expenditure into four main categories, with the largest share going to prevention at 42 per cent and detection at 28 per cent.

Almost 33 per cent of the respondents believed that storage of data on the cloud was more secure than keeping it on their own premises. However, in both Germany and Japan, 24 per cent of executives perceived the cloud as being less secure – highlighting a disparity from the global average (18 per cent).