A leading security operations provider publishes the results of its 2023 Security Trends Report.
The report offers security professionals up-to-date insights into the cybersecurity landscape and an outlook on future developments, so that companies and organizations can optimally protect themselves in the face of the constantly evolving threat landscape.
Ransomware: To pay or not to pay?
The risk of falling victim to a ransomware incident is widespread and rising: nearly half (48%) of respondents rated this variant of malware as the top security threat this year, and 42% said their organization was hit by a ransomware attack last year. Almost three quarters (74%) of these companies paid ransoms – contrary to the recommendations of law enforcement agencies and the BSI. 41% of those affected paid the full ransom amount and 22% paid at least part of it after negotiating with the attackers. Furthermore, 11% agreed that their cyber insurance would pay part of the sum.
Cloud as a security concern
The cloud is among the top security concerns for the second year in a row: Cloud vulnerabilities are rated as the top cybersecurity threat by 42% of companies behind ransomware. 26% also see cloud security as their top weakness, followed by vulnerability detection and patching (25%). Also, only 38% feel their cloud resources are adequately secured. Looking at Arctic Wolf's 2022 threat detection data shows that over 47% of the threats SOC teams respond to involve a compromised cloud component and 92% of organizations have an active cloud vulnerability in their infrastructure exhibit.
However, many companies seem to have recognized the need for action: almost half (46%) would like to expand their know-how in cloud security and modern IT infrastructures, 53% already have plans to expand their cloud security technology this year or update. "Cloud solutions are operated differently than their on-prem predecessors and are based on different security concepts," explains Dr. Sebastian Schmerl, Director Security Services EMEA at Arctic Wolf. "Typical on-prem paradigms of IT security no longer apply - and this poses enormous challenges for IT teams, which are often staffed with generalists. It takes cloud security experience and know-how on how to securely configure corresponding solutions, just like continuous monitoring. If the necessary internal resources are lacking, external security operation providers can help.”
The great silence
The latest Security Trends Report shows that almost three quarters of companies do not publicly disclose security breaches. Half (50%) of the companies surveyed say they have been affected by a data breach in the past year, but the vast majority (72%) chose not to disclose the information. Reasons were fear of image damage (38%), personal concerns about the professional consequences (31%), concerns about possible further breaches, fear of the impact on the company's cyber insurance premiums (25%) or because in some countries are not legally obliged to do so (33%).
Macroeconomic Factors
Despite the current tight economy, with high inflation and a looming recession, more than half (57%) of respondents said their cybersecurity budget will increase this year. And 15% of these companies expect their budgets to increase by 2022% or more compared to 50.
“Hardly a week goes by without a security incident being reported in the media. It is therefore very gratifying to see that many companies have now recognized the high level of risk and are taking this threat very seriously, coupled with the realization that savings in cybersecurity are often short-lived. The costs caused by a successful ransomware attack, for example - for business failures, recovery or paying the ransom - almost always exceed those for adequate security measures many times over. Loss of reputation is not even included in this.”
Skills shortage remains the biggest obstacle
As in the previous year, this year's report also shows that the shortage of skilled workers poses challenges for companies. For example, 68% of the companies surveyed stated that staffing problems were the biggest obstacle to achieving their safety goals. 32% have difficulty hiring and retaining IT professionals. 36% complain that their current employees lack the expertise to achieve their goals.
“Good cyber security technology is one thing for making companies secure. At least as important, however, are experts who can analyze alerts and quickly take the necessary countermeasures in the event of a threat. If companies lack the internal resources to do this, they can work with external experts and use managed security services to flexibly support their own resources and continuously improve the company's security situation and adapt it to current developments in the threat landscape," says Dr. Sebastian Schmerl.
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About Arctic Wolf Arctic Wolf is a global leader in security operations, providing the first cloud-native security operations platform to mitigate cyber risk. Based on threat telemetry spanning endpoint, network and cloud sources, the Arctic Wolf® Security Operations Cloud analyzes more than 1,6 trillion security events per week worldwide. It provides company-critical insights into almost all security use cases and optimizes customers' heterogeneous security solutions. The Arctic Wolf platform is used by more than 2.000 customers worldwide. It provides automated threat detection and response, enabling organizations of all sizes to set up world-class security operations at the push of a button.