Enterprise Orgs Say they Have a Poor Understanding of Cyber Risks

Welcome to this weeks blog, where I’ll dive deeper into the Top 10 Cybersecurity Challenges enterprise organizations face, as found in our recently released Cybersecurity Insights Report 2022: The State of Cyber Resilience.

#10 – Poor Understanding of Cyber Risk

While cybersecurity has become a major concern for businesses around the globe, a majority of enterprise security decision-makers listed a “Poor Understanding of Cyber Risk” as number ten in our list. 

While a greater understanding comes with security maturity, it’s worrying that some organizations have a poor understanding of the cyber risk they face. But when you think of the digitally connected world we live in, it all makes sense. 

Technology continues to develop at an incredible pace, playing an important role in our personal lives, at work, and when making business decisions. The more reliant we become on technology, the bigger the risk that attackers can infiltrate systems and steal valuable information. 

One of the most common challenges in defending against cyber threats is that many organizations don’t understand the true nature and scope of their cyber risk exposure, including the fact that most organizational leaders lack an understanding and effective assessment of cyber risks their organizations face. This can lead to an inability to prioritize security investments or even worse, make decisions based on inaccurate assumptions about the threats facing their organization.

PWC defines cyber risk as any risk associated with financial loss, disruption, or damage to the reputation of an organization from failure, unauthorized or erroneous use of its information systems.

In many cases, the more sophisticated and extensive a business’ digital operations, the higher the cyber risk involved. However, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Fortune 100 company or small business, if you lack a true understanding of the cyber risks targeting your business and are not adequately protected against cyberattacks, you could be vulnerable.

In any event, it’s important to get more acquainted with the cyber risks you might be facing. Typical elements that can increase cyber risk include:

• Remote access for employees, customers or third-parties
• A lenient password policy 
• Employees using company-issued devices for personal use
• Access to administrative privileges on your company’s network or computer systems
• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy in the workplace
• Not reviewing or updating your cyber security policies each year

By 2025, 70% of CEOs will mandate a culture of organizational resilience to survive coincident threats from cybercrime, severe weather events, civil unrest and political instabilities.

Gartner

Understanding Your Risk

Cyber risk is growing as cybercrime evolves, and it has never been more important for a business to have a system of precautionary measures in place. Cybercriminals often target businesses because they believe that the data stored within these companies is worth stealing. Executives must identify the value and sensitivity of the information in their organization to minimize risks.

There are several ways enterprise organizations can improve their understanding of their organization’s cyber risk exposure, including cyber risk assessment tools, using internal teams to conduct a threat hunting exercise, or engaging with a third-party cybersecurity experts that have deep industry expertise.

Tips to help reduce your risk of cyber attacks

• Educate employee: Security awareness training isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity. 
• Training exercises: Simulate phishing attacks, develop best practice guides for BYOOD and social media 
• Manage user privileges: Enable access only for relevant personnel and partners to sensitive data 
• Update software: Keep up with patch tuesday and make sure all your software is up to date so there are fewer weaknesses for criminals to exploit. 
• Enhance your security defense: Make the right investments in security tools, like Anomali’s intelligence-driven XDR solutions (yes, that was a plug for our awesome tech)
• Be prepared: Breaches are inevitable. It’s how quickly you respond that will make the difference. 

In any case, it’s important for you to gain a better understanding of your organization’s current state so that you can begin planning for the future. All businesses face the risk of a cyber breach at some point. Understanding your risks  – and your relevant threat landscape – can help ensure your prepared to defend.

Join me next time as we take a look at number nine on our list. 

In the meantime, download our Cybersecurity Insights 2022 report or check out the last blog to learn more.