According to a survey, around 24 percent of all companies in Europe have been victims of cyber attacks over the past 82 months. Although the attacks were repelled, they will increase. Who has the contingency plan ready?
During the last 24 months, 82 percent of companies in Europe have already been victims of cyber attacks. This is the result of a survey of over 500 IT security experts in Germany, France and Great Britain by censuswide on behalf of comforte AG. More than half of those surveyed (54 percent) even registered several cyber attacks during this period.
20 percent with more than 5 attacks
🔎 Over 80 percent of the companies have already been attacked - so far unsuccessfully (Image: comforte).
One in five companies (20 percent) even recorded four to six cyber attacks in the last two years. Michael Deissner, CEO of comforte AG in Wiesbaden: “Attacks on the data stored in companies are a constant challenge. Building an effective cyber defense is now a top priority.”
Two-thirds (66 percent) of those surveyed see customer data as the focus of cybercrime. Financial data (63 percent) and personal data of employees (60 percent) are apparently also exposed to intensive attacks by cybercriminals. Almost two thirds of those surveyed see the security of sensitive data as a major hurdle for the further digital transformation of business processes. "Without data security, digitization will become a suicide mission for entrepreneurs," says Michael Deissner. This is all the more true since a quarter (25 percent) of the IT experts surveyed reported fines due to violations of legal data protection regulations.
Increasing investment needs for IT security
IT experts are also expecting a sharp increase in investment in this area due to stricter government regulations for IT security. Nearly nine in ten respondents (87 percent) expect their organizations to continue to increase cyber security budgets over the next 12 months. More than half expect budget growth of between 26 and 50 percent. Another fifth (22 percent) of IT professionals even assume that cybersecurity budgets will grow even more.
Over 70 percent have contingency plans
🔎 97 percent have an emergency plan - but only 72 percent have tested it (Image: comforte).
With hacking attacks on the rise, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of organizations have developed and tested specific contingency plans. Another quarter (26 percent) have emergency plans in place but have not yet tested them in practice. Only two percent of the companies apparently have no plans for emergencies in the drawer.
The IT experts are very optimistic about the early detection of possible attacks. Almost half (48 percent) of the IT security experts surveyed are confident that they can identify cyber attacks within just one hour. Another 29 percent assume that it will take between one and two hours to identify cyber attacks.
Only three percent of IT experts believe that their company needs up to twelve hours to do this. Deissner: “The self-confidence of the respondents is surprising. In view of the rapid succession of successful data breaches, many IT experts apparently underestimate the risks "Cost of Data Breach" study by IBM On average, companies need more than half a year (277 days) until hacking is detected.
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About comfort
comforte AG is a leading provider of enterprise data security solutions. Today, more than 500 companies worldwide trust comforte's tokenization and format-preserving encryption capabilities to protect sensitive data. Comforte's Data Security Platform seamlessly integrates with the most modern cloud-based environments as well as traditional core systems. It helps customers discover, classify and protect data, no matter where it resides.