When 97% of CIOs all see things the same way, it’s probably a sign to take the risk of cyber threats seriously – a problem new data shows is only going to get worse in the next five years.
I cover a ton of reports from cybersecurity vendors on our blog, but when you see a network infrastructure vendor put out a report with intent on just covering the challenges organizations are facing and they have some interesting data on cybersecurity, it got my attention. Opengear’s Right People, Right Skills report is designed to spell out current challenges and corresponding staffing/talent shortages.
But what we got is some very relevant data around what the current and future state of organizational cybersecurity looks like. According to the report, 97% of CIOs identified one of the following four cyber threats as being one of the worst risks to their organization:
- Malware (42% of organizations listed this as one of their worst risks)
- Spam & Phishing (34%)
- Social Engineering (31%)
- Insider Threats (30%)
Now combine these threats with two other pieces of data from this report about the current state of experienced staffing. We already know that cybersecurity has been facing a shortfall for the last few years. 95% of CIOs say that this shortfall has led to an inability to manage networks properly. Fast forward to now and 86% of US-based CIOs expect at least one-quarter of their network engineers will retire in the next five years.
The reality is that organizations that already understand the threat of cyber attacks may very likely have less experienced staff to ensure a continual state of security. This is yet another reason why security awareness training is so important. Continual end user education puts the emphasis on the user themselves to strengthen the state of security, rather than simply burdening the security practitioner.
I certainly hope to see the shortfall of talent resolve itself, but in the meantime, organizations need to find ways to shore up security despite the coming challenges.
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