Nation-state attacks fears grow, execs don’t trust governments to protect them from cyber threats

Arctic Wolf published findings from a recent global survey of over 1,400 IT decision-makers at enterprise organizations. After a year of high-profile cyberattacks, the survey data reveals executive attitudes on a wide array of cybersecurity and business issues.

Private sector remaining skeptical about govt’s ability to mitigate cyber threats

Despite recent interventions into cybersecurity issues, executives lack faith in the government’s ability to protect them from cyber threats, with 60% of organizations believing that spending on new security tools and services is the most effective way of stopping attacks.

On the heels of advanced diplomatic talks between Russia and the USA on mitigating eCrime and ransomware attacks, only 15% of U.S. executives believe that diplomacy effectively stops future cyberattacks. In comparison, 31% believe retaliatory cyberattacks against foreign nations would be effective.

Fears of nation-state attacks escalate

China (41%) and Russia (41%) are seen equally in the eyes of global IT decision-makers as the source of the most dangerous threats targeting their businesses.

“Name and shame” culture in security persists

Companies continue to see breaches as reputational issues:

• 32% of enterprises experienced a six-figure breach last year; 61% of business owners admitted to concealing a breach
• 78% of C-suite executives claim that they would be willing to pay a ransom; 56% would be willing to pay over $100,000 to resume operations

Confidence in ability to secure hybrid work environments remains low

• 74% of executives adopting hybrid work believe their in-house IT and security teams lack the capability and expertise to fend off ransomware or other sophisticated cyberthreats
• 60% of executives believe their individual employees could not identify a cyber-attack targeting their business in any working location

“The constant reports of successful ransomware attacks and growing cyber threats from foreign adversaries over the past year have left executives feeling ill-prepared to protect their businesses against sophisticated attacks, and that belief has only been compounded by the operational challenges of running a business in a hybrid work environment,” said Ian McShane, field CTO, Arctic Wolf.

“The best way for organizations to break out of this cycle of fear and uncertainty is for them to recognize that they don’t have a tools problem, but an operational one and that embracing security operations will allow them to address the rapidly evolving threat landscape with ease and simplicity.”