Two-thirds of organizations (67%) are facing rising information security threats, and over a third (37%) have no real-time insight on cyber risks necessary to combat them.
These are among the findings of EY’s annual Global Information Security survey, which covered 1,825 organizations in 60 countries this year.
Results suggest that companies are lacking the agility, the budget and the skills to mitigate known vulnerabilities and successfully prepare for and address cybersecurity.
Among respondents 43% say that their organization’s total information security budget will stay approximately the same in the coming 12 months despite increasing threats, which is only a marginal improvement to 2013 when 46% said budgets would not change.
Over half (53%) say that a lack of skilled resources is one of the main obstacles challenging their information security program and only 5% of responding companies have a threat intelligence team with dedicated analysts.
According to EY, these figures also represent no material difference to 2013, when 50% highlighted a lack of skilled resources and 4% said they had a threat intelligence team with dedicated analysts.
”Careless or unaware employees” is revealed as the number one vulnerability companies face, with 38% of respondents saying it is their first priority.
“Outdated information security controls or architecture” and “cloud computing use” are second and third respectively (35% and 17%).
”Stealing financial information”, “disrupting or defacing the organization” and “stealing intellectual property or data” are the top three threats (28%, 25% and 20% respectively say it is their first priority).
EY said this year’s survey finds that organizations need to do a better job of anticipating attacks in an environment where it is no longer possible to prevent all cyber breaches, and where threats come from ever more resourceful and well-funded sources.
“Organizations must undertake a journey from a reactive to a proactive posture, transforming themselves from easy targets for cybercriminals into more formidable adversaries,” said Paul van Kessel, EY’s Global Risk Leader.