In Proofpoint’s 2024 Voice of the CISO report, the cybersecurity firm discovered that CISOs are coping with people-centric threats greater than ever. Plus, cybersecurity budgets usually don’t change, and AI may also help and damage CISOs’ efforts.
Concerning the precise menace dangers, 41% of the CISOs principally concern ransomware assaults, adopted by malware (38%), electronic mail fraud (36%), cloud account compromise (34%), insider menace (30%) and distributed denial of service (30%) assaults.
For this report, the analysis agency Censuswide surveyed 1,600 CISOs from organizations of 1,000 workers or extra throughout totally different industries in 16 international locations.
CISOs’ primary people-centric safety issues
In line with the survey, extra CISOs than ever imagine human error is the most important vulnerability for his or her organizations; 74% of the CISOs really feel this fashion, up from 60% in 2023.
As well as, 80% of CISOs see human danger as a key cybersecurity concern over the subsequent two years, up from 63% in 2023. That is the place AI comes into play, as 87% of CISOs wish to deploy AI-powered applied sciences to struggle human vulnerability and block human-centric cyber threats.
Regarding threats additionally embrace malicious insiders (36%) and compromised insiders (33%).
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Information loss occasions and menace mitigation
Negligent or careless workers are seen as the most important trigger of knowledge loss occasions for CISOs (42%) over exterior assaults (40%). In line with the Proofpoint report, 73% of CISOs added their information loss occasions have been attributable to workers leaving their group.
The results of those information loss occasions are principally monetary loss (43%), post-attack restoration prices (41%) and lack of crucial information (40%).
SEE: CISOs in Australia Urged to Take a Nearer Take a look at Information Breach Dangers
To struggle the info loss downside, many CISOs educate their workers about laptop safety finest practices (53%), use cloud safety options (52%), deploy information loss prevention expertise (51%), endpoint safety (49%), electronic mail safety (48%) or isolation expertise (42%).
This adoption of DLP has surged from 35% to 51% in a yr, with the consequence being 81% of CISOs believing their information is effectively protected.
An rising variety of cybersecurity threats
Proofpoint said the assault floor of organizations has by no means been bigger for varied causes, together with hybrid work has develop into a regular, whereas reliance on cloud expertise has grown. Additionally, workers have develop into more and more cell, usually taking information with them when altering jobs.
Seventy % of CISOs really feel their group will in all probability face a cloth cyberattack over the subsequent 12 months, with 31% considering it is rather possible. The CISOs from the U.S., Canada and South Korea are probably the most involved about experiencing such an assault.
Synthetic intelligence helps CISOs but in addition cybercriminals
As famous earlier, most CISOs surveyed wish to deploy AI-powered applied sciences to assist them shield their group, even when they’re nonetheless at an early stage. Proofpoint wrote, “Even in these early stages, we can already connect the dots between external threats, sensitive content and anomalous behaviors or activity. That’s something that has not been possible at the same speed and scale with human moderation or traditional analysis.”
SEE: Google Cloud’s Nick Godfrey Talks Safety, Funds and AI for CISOs
But AI additionally advantages cybercriminals, rendering their assaults simpler to scale, and strategies that have been solely deployed by nation-state menace actors or well-funded cybercriminal teams are actually accessible for lower-skilled attackers. Greater than half of the CISOs (54%) assume AI poses some type of safety danger to their group.
Stress about cybersecurity budgets
The economic system has had an affect on organizations, in accordance with 59% of the surveyed CISOs. Plus, CISOs are pressured to do extra or a minimum of the identical for much less, with safety budgets remaining flat at finest. Forty-eight % of the CISOs have been requested to chop workers, delay backfills or scale back spending.
CISOs’ high precedence in accordance with their funds is now enhancing data safety and enabling better enterprise innovation (58%) barely forward of enhancing worker cybersecurity consciousness (54%).
CISOs’ considerations embrace burnout and insurance coverage
Along with the budget-related stress, 66% of CISOs really feel expectations on them are unrealistic. This quantity is repeatedly rising (61% for 2023), as in addition they really feel their considerations are unanswered. This all leads to low job satisfaction, with 53% of the CISOs experiencing or witnessing burnout prior to now yr.
Sixty-six % of CISOs are additionally involved with private, monetary and authorized legal responsibility of their function, fearing an absence of safety of their job. And, 72% of CISOs wouldn’t be part of a corporation that might not supply them administrators and officers insurance coverage or related safety within the occasion of a profitable cyberattack.
A brilliant spot: CISOs’ relationships with board members
Eighty-four % of CISOs reported they’ve eye-to-eye contacts with their board members, whereas solely 51% reported such contact in 2022 and 62% in 2023. These contacts have led to a better understanding from the board members.
Disclosure: I work for Pattern Micro, however the views expressed on this article are mine.
