Public sector agencies struggle with cybersecurity intelligence data

A new study from Splunk, in collaboration with Foundry, finds that 49 percent of public sector agencies struggle to leverage data to detect and prevent cybersecurity threats.

The report shows 50 percent of the sector has issues leveraging data to inform cybersecurity decisions, and 56 percent of public sector agencies have difficulties leveraging data to mitigate and recover from cybersecurity incidents.

These data challenges are also directly impacting public-private partnerships. According to the report, 44 percent of public sector respondents say that shared cybersecurity intelligence available to them is lacking for their needs, compared to 29 percent of private sector respondents. The survey also finds that both public and private sector organizations are less likely to share cybersecurity intelligence outside of their sector -- only 42 percent of public sector respondents report sharing data with the private sector, and 38 percent of private sector respondents report regularly sharing data with government agencies -- due to lack of resources and challenges leveraging data.

This is despite both public and private sectors having similar security priorities. These include improving threat response/remediation (55 percent among public sector and 53 percent among private sector respondents), improving detection of emerging threats (49 percent public sector and 47 percent private sector) and improving user security awareness (46 percent public sector and 50 percent private sector).

"At the core, security is a data problem and organizations are missing a foundational piece of their security strategy when they cannot leverage their data," says Bill Rowan, VP public sector at Splunk. "All organizations -- both private and public -- have a responsibility to citizens and customers to enable cyber resiliency and that can be done by having clear visibility and understanding of data. These shared challenges and priorities should translate into better threat intelligence sharing and security practices across all sectors."

You can get the full report on the Splunk site.

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