43% of C-suite execs name cybersecurity as No. 1 operational challenge

A global survey over 400 C-suite execs by the management consulting firm A.T. Kearney showed that cybersecurity (43 percent) is the top operational challenge they faced.

Also, a whopping 85 percent of C-suite executives agree that cyberattacks will become more frequent and more costly.

Here are five survey take-aways.

1. Cybersecurity (43%) is the top operational challenge faced by C-suites, followed by innovation (34%), business model efficiency (33%) and technology (33%).

2. Of respondents who reported cybersecurity as their top challenge, 38% said they are most concerned about weak defense systems. Executives also expressed concern about recruiting and retaining qualified IT talent.

3. C-suite executives said their greatest opportunities are adopting new technology (38%) and improving business models and strategy (36%).

4. Seventy-eight percent of respondents agreed technological innovation — such as AI, distributed computing and biotechnology — will improve global productivity.

5. Forty-nine percent of executives indicated concern about the adoption of big data and predictive analytics technologies, saying it is a significant challenge, although 42% said the technologies represent an opportunity.

Surprisingly, they did not mention any legal liabilities related to data breaches.

Here is a PDF with the full report.

One of the controls to put in place is effective employee security awareness training, which combines on-demand web based training with simulated phishing attacks to keep users on their toes with security top of mind. Find out how affordable this is for your organization and be pleasantly surprised.