Only 16.6 Percent are Very Confident in Their Ability to Protect Customer Data, While 68 Percent Cite Insufficient Resources as a Top Cybersecurity Challenge

Cygilant, a pioneer in hybrid Security as a Service, today announced results from new cybersecurity research conducted in late 2017 and early 2018. More than 165 IT and security professionals at medium-sized companies across the country were surveyed for Cygilant’s Q1, 2018 Cybersecurity Survey on questions about cybersecurity budgets, infrastructure, employee training, and general readiness and ability to thwart breaches and cyber attacks.

As in Cygilant’s 2017 Cybersecurity Survey, the new findings show a lack of confidence in respondents’ ability to protect customer data, with only 16.6 percent very confident that they can successfully protect customer data. Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed cite a lack of company resources, including budget and time, as a top cybersecurity challenge.

“It’s important that businesses understand the cybersecurity challenges they’re facing, and no one knows these challenges better than the cybersecurity professionals on the ‘front line’ working to prevent breaches and a loss of customer and corporate data on a daily basis,” said Neil Weitzel, Director of Security Research, Cygilant. “The results from our new survey haven’t changed dramatically from last year. Companies are still understaffing and underfunding cybersecurity initiatives and aren’t providing the ongoing security awareness training to employees which is required to protect against relentless attacks by adversaries. These new survey results confirm that companies are not taking the steps they should to build defenses around their customer data and continue to be vulnerable to cyber attacks.”

Other findings include:

-        53 percent believe their company was breached once or more in 2017

-        80.5 percent have underfunded IT security budgets or no budget at all

-        16.6 percent are very confident in their ability to protect customer data

-        14.9 percent are confident in current cybersecurity technologies

-        63 percent conduct cybersecurity training once a year or less

-        24.7 percent rate phishing and spam as a top five concern but have no formal employee awareness program

-        46 percent of organizations review their cybersecurity program with the board of directors or senior executives once a year or less

Download the infographic with complete results from Cygilant’s Q1, 2018 Cybersecurity Survey here.

About SOCVue

Cygilant’s SOCVue® is a subscription security as a service that combines people, process, and technology to deliver a cost-effective information security program, including:

·      Managed Incident Detection and Response

·      Managed and Co-managed SIEM & Log Management

·      Managed and Co-managed Vulnerability Management

·      Managed Patch Management

·      24x7x365 Monitoring by Trained Global SOC Security Analysts

·      Compliance Reporting

·      Auditable Change Management

About Cygilant, Inc.

Cygilant, a pioneer in hybrid security as a service, is transforming how organizations of all sizes build an enterprise-class security program. Acting as a multiplier to customers’ IT teams, Cygilant provides 24x7x365 security and compliance visibility, managed incident detection, response and remediation guidance backed by best-of-breed technology, industry best practices and global SOC analysts. Cygilant is a trusted advisor to organizations that need to protect customer data, PII and PHI data, and Intellectual property against cyber threats and vulnerabilities. For more information, visit: https://www.cygilant.com