Why improving cyber resilience is key

75 percent of U.S. organizations are not prepared to respond to cyberattacks, leaving them more vulnerable than ever against increasing intensity and volume of security breaches, according to the Ponemon Institute.

Improving cyber resilience is found to be the most potent weapon organizations have in prevailing against the mounting threats they face.

Key findings:

• Ninety-one percent said cyber resilience is essential to protecting intellectual property, while 90 percent said it is required for minimizing non-compliance with regulations and obligations
• The vast majority also believe that they lack the proper tools and infrastructure to prevent attacks in the first place
• Only 30 percent of respondents have a proper, modern Cyber Security Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) in place
• One-third (32 percent) of respondents stated that collaboration between business functions was poor or non-existent, and had a direct negative impact on their organization’s level of cyber resilience
• Sixty-five percent of respondents stated that their organizations have not devoted the necessary time and resources for planning and preparing for the next wave of cyberattacks
• More than half (55 percent) believe their organization lacks sufficient risk awareness, analysis, and assessments in combating cyberattacks.

“We found that cyber resilience is now the number one goal for security teams across these organizations, but they must adopt new technologies, improve collaboration across business functions, and have proper CSIRPs in place, among other things, before they can attain that goal,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. “Until then, their organizations remain extremely vulnerable to the next wave of cyberattacks from increasingly sophisticated and determined hackers.”