CYBER SECURITY
CYBER SECURITY
The world of cyber security is constantly evolving.
Old threats are constantly being replaced by smarter and more aggressive beasts. It’s up to cyber security teams to keep these threats at bay. In light of this, how have cyber security teams coped in the last year?
The trend has been fairly positive – on the whole, greater proactivity is the order of the day, with businesses keen to implement safeguards for future threats.
Have you been impacted by any cyber threats in the last 12 months?
Given the constant evolution of cyber threats, it’s not surprising that more businesses have been affected. Nearly a quarter have been impacted in the last 12 months, while a consistent 10% of respondents have been affected more than once in recent years. Please note that not all of these incidents have resulted in data loss.
*We didn’t ask this question in 2016.
Have you reviewed your security policies in the last 12 months?
Since 2015, there has been steady if unspectacular growth in businesses reviewing their security policies. This is likely linked to the increase in cyber-attacks in recent years.
As threats have increased, so businesses have responded.
Do you feel like you have sufficient cyber security skills in-house to deal with current threats?
Given the rise in internal investment, it’s surprising that the number of businesses fully happy with their in-house cyber security has stayed relatively level. While we expected to see a bigger rise than 3% in two years, it’s difficult for cyber security teams to keep up with the constant rise of new threats.
Are you concerned about what the Internet of Things (IoT) will mean for information security?
Concern about IoT has remained fairly stable. The challenges around IoT are still relatively new, so expect to see the level of concern increase in the future as more high-profile breaches occur.
Hopefully, as understanding of this area evolves, we will see more organisations implement policies to protect against IoT.
10 YEARS OF
CYBER SECURITY
A timeline of some of the most impactful cyber-attacks in recent times.
DRAG
2008
US military hacked by
infected flash drive in
laptop
2013
Yahoo victim to cyber-
attack and data breach
of 3 billion user
accounts
2015
KeyLogger,
CryptoLogger and
CosmicDuke are the
top cyber threats to
have affected
businesses (DHC 2015)
2017
WannaCry & NotPetya
ransomware attacks
2011
Sony PlayStation
Network hacked –
data breach of 77
million accounts
2014
Sony Pictures is
hacked in response to
the planned launch of
“The Interview”
2016
Cyber incidents caused
6% of total IT downtime
(DHC 2016)
10 YEARS OF
CYBER SECURITY
A timeline of some of the most impactful cyber-attacks in recent times.
