Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 10 | Page 24

LATEST INTELLIGENCE PRESENTED BY 2018 CYBERSECURITY: PERCEPTIONS & PRACTICES A Download whitepaper here s uncertainties – cybersecurity and otherwise – swim around us with increased velocity and frequency, it’s always helpful to hear directly from security leaders in the trenches of our industry. These first-hand accounts have the unique ability to shed light on the challenges security professionals and their teams face nearly every day of their work lives. That’s precisely what this 2018 Cybersecurity: Perceptions & Practices benchmark survey accomplishes. It provides insights into the state of the cybersecurity practice of 751 mid- to large-sized organisations in the United States, United Kingdom and Asia Pacific regions. From these insights, one thing that comes as a surprise is data that suggests that the US may not be leading the cybersecurity industry in security maturity. In fact, respondents from organisations in the Asia Pacific region clearly indicate that they are 24 INTELLIGENTCIO far more likely to have a security operations centre (SOC) than their US and UK counterparts. The Asia Pacific region also boasts the largest percentage of IT budget allocation towards cybersecurity. Both of these findings suggest a cultural prioritisation towards security investments - one that isn’t being matched by the US or UK. When prompted on workflow/employee efficiency, it appears evident that security professionals are wasting huge amounts of time and effort on false positives and inefficient processes. Of course, this isn’t news to us, but it’s important to note how the data acutely quantifies this problem. The majority of IT executives indicate that the average cybersecurity professional wastes as much as 10 hours a week due to software inefficiencies. In an industry already plagued by a shortage in qualified specialists, this is a reality that is not only unacceptable, but also avoidable. n www.intelligentcio.com