Only 45 percent of organizations are confident in their security

According to a new report 92 percent of executives believe regulators and investors will expect companies to manage their cyber security risk exposure, yet only 45 percent are confident in their security posture.

This is among the findings of the Cisco 2016 Annual Security Report which looks at the challenges businesses have in the face of a growing number of cyber threats.

Among other highlights of the report are the problems of an ageing infrastructure. Between 2014 and 2015, the number of organizations that said their security infrastructure was up-to-date dropped by 10 percent. The survey also discovered that 92 percent of internet devices are running known vulnerabilities. Worse than that, 31 percent of all devices analyzed are no longer supported or maintained by the vendor.

Cisco also identifies the risk that SMBs present to the supply chain. From 2014 to 2015 the number of SMBs that used web security dropped by more than 10 percent. This presents a potential risk to larger enterprises due to structural weaknesses. SMBs often lack the resources for an effective security posture, they are improving their security approach, in part, by outsourcing, which is up to 23 percent in 2015 over 14 percent the previous year.

Malicious browser extensions are identified as a potential source of major data leaks, although they’re often viewed by security teams as a low-level threat. This threat affects more than 85 percent of organizations. Adware, malvertising, and even common websites or obituary columns have led to breaches for those who don't regularly update their software.

"Security is resiliency by design, privacy in mind, and trust transparently seen," says John N Stewart, senior vice president, chief security and trust officer at Cisco. "With IoT and digitization taking hold in every business, technology capability must be built, bought, and operated with each of these elements in mind. We cannot create more technical debt. Instead, we must meet the challenge head on today".

The full report has much more information and is available to download from the Cisco website.

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