66 percent of businesses don't understand their cyber risks

Businesses are struggling to understand their cyber risks, with 66 percent of respondents to a new survey indicating that they have limited visibility and insight into their cyber risk profiles.

The survey, conducted by Censuswide for Critical Start, shows 67 percent of organizations have experienced a breach requiring attention within the last two years despite having traditional threat-based security measures in place.

In addition, 61 percent of security executives expressed their concerns over the current misalignment between cybersecurity investments and their organization's risk reduction priorities.

"Today, it's not just about defending against threats; it's also about acknowledging the full spectrum of potential risks and vulnerabilities as part of the cornerstone for modern business resilience," says Randy Watkins, chief technology officer at Critical Start. "As our research highlights, organizations are starting to think more holistically about their security programs to better safeguard against breaches and disruptions. They want to better align resources and projects to the greatest risk reduction impacts."

Among other findings, 83 percent of organizations agree that a comprehensive cyber risk reduction strategy will yield a reduction in the likelihood of a significant cyber incident occurring. Organizations are also looking to be more proactive with 74 percent planning to prioritize proactive risk reduction strategies to stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape.

Teams are looking for outside assistance too, 93 percent of organizations plan to offload specific segments of cyber risk reduction workstreams or projects to security service providers within the next two years.

Organizations see there's a need for holistic cyber risk management solutions, 93 percent express the belief that a holistic, evidenced based approach to cyber risk management will yield a reduction in the likelihood of a significant cyber incident occurring.

You can get the full report from the Critical Start site.

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