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Only 22% of business heads ‘confident’ about cyber security strategy

Study from VMware and Forbes uncovers ‘outdated’ defences, and growing ‘chasm’ between polled organisations’ business executives and techies.

Fewer than a quarter of business leaders across EMEA are confident in their current cyber security practices, with businesses are trapped in a routine of spending without adequately assessing the needs of their organisation.

According to a research study by VMware and Forbes Insights, 78% of business and IT security leaders believe the cyber security solutions their organisations work with are ‘outdated’, despite 40% having acquired new tools over the past 12 months to address potential threats.

Seventy-four percent, meanwhile, plan to invest even more in detecting and identifying attacks over the next three years, the study found, despite having a multitude of products already installed – 26% of businesses currently have ‘26 or more’ products deployed across their enterprises for this purpose.

Lack of confidence in cyber defensive investment highlighted in the study exists within a ‘chasm’ opening between executive teams and security teams, the study’s findings suggest. In the UK for instance, only 24% of IT team respondents consider c-suite executives in their organisation to be ‘highly collaborative’ when it comes to cyber security. Across EMEA, meanwhile, only 27% of executives and only 16% of IT security practitioners polled say that they are collaborating in a significant way to address cyber security issues.

The ostensive aim of UK businesses to ‘spend their way out’ of security crises is coupled with a significant security skills gap, the research found: just 16% of UK respondents state ‘extreme confidence’ in the readiness of their organisation to address emerging security challenges, with only 14% ‘extremely confident’ in the readiness of their IT security personnel.

More details at:
https://www.vmware.com/uk.html