Cyber Security Teams Worry Most About Phishing & Ransomware

Uploaded on 2020-08-10 in NEWS-News Analysis, FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Services-IT & Telecoms

Nearly 90% of security professionals are most concerned about phishing and ransomware attacks. This is especially alarming, as only 48% confirm that they have continuous visibility into the risk area of phishing, web and ransomware, a report by the cyber security experts at Balbix reveals.

Organisations and their IT staffs have to battle a variety of cyber threats in their quest to keep their businesses and resources safe and secure. But some threats are more pervasive and challenging than others. In their report released Balbix looks at the top threats cited in a survey of security professionals.

The 2020 State of Enterprise Security Posture Report reveals that cyber security teams are struggling with a lack of visibility into threats, endpoint devices, access privileges, and other key security controls necessary for a robust cyber security posture.

The report is based on the results of a comprehensive online survey of IT and cyber security professionals in the US, conducted in May 2020 to identify the latest trends and concerns in the cybersecurity community. The respondents range from technical executives to IT security practitioners, representing a balanced cross-section of organisations of varying sizes across multiple industries.

The findings also determined that 64% of organisations are only, at best, somewhat confident in their security posture, and that the lack of visibility into security is the primary concern for organisations. Specifically, 46% find it hard to tell which vulnerabilities are real threats vs ones that will never be exploited.

Limited visibility of the overall attack surface (37%), and the burden of being inundated with far too many alerts to act upon (25%) were found as additional significant concerns.

The report shows that security professionals remain inundated with the challenge of maintaining clear observation and visibility of the changing electronic global-scape.

Additional Report Findings

The second biggest security threat faced by organisations, after phishing web and ransomware attacks, is unpatched systems (53%); misconfigurations (47%) follows as the third main risk driver

68% list unpatched systems as the top area that they have continuous visibility into, followed by identity and access management (59%) and phishing, web and ransomware (48%)

Only 13% of cyber security leaders feel like presentations to the board go very well and that the board understands the cyber risk posture of the enterprise

60% of organisations have knowledge of fewer than 75% of the assets on their networks, with most claiming only spotty understanding of business criticality and categorisation

80% of organisations provide more access privileges than are necessary for users to do their jobs, unnecessarily adding substantial risk to their organisations

Only 58% are capable of determining all vulnerable assets within 24 hours following news of critical exploits

To solve this challenge, enterprises must start with gaining continuous, comprehensive visibility of real risks to their organisation, including not only where they have weaknesses or vulnerabilities, but also whether those weaknesses are likely to impact them.

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