Half of UK CEOs believe cybersecurity poses a greater risk to their organizations than economic uncertainty, according to a new Palo Alto Networks survey.
The findings are from a survey of 2,500 CEOs of large organizations (500+ employees) in the UK, Germany, France, Brazil and the UAE.
Despite recognizing the business threat posed by cyberattacks, UK CEOs have a lower level of understanding of cybersecurity risks than international CEOs, with only Only 16%. This compares to 21% in Brazil, 21% in the UAE, 22% in France and 39% in Germany.
Additionally, many UK CEOs feel disconnected from their organisation’s cybersecurity responsibilities. More than one in five (21%) said that his CIO at the company is fully responsible for this area, and 24% are partially responsible themselves, although still largely responsible. Part of it is his CIO job.
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Encouragingly, more than three-quarters (78%) of respondents believe their organizations have complete and tested plans and systems for threat protection and resilience I answered. Additionally, 74% expressed confidence that their business has the resources to adapt to changing threats and vulnerabilities.
However, ransomware attacks are a different story, with only 36% having an agreed plan to work with incident response professionals to recover data and systems. About a third (34%) of ransomware users admitted to paying a ransom demand to release their systems and return their data in the event of an incident.
UK CEOs are among the least confident in their ability to manage cybersecurity risks across their third-party supply chains, compared to Germany (39%) and France (42%). Only 32% are very confident in their ability to manage risk. Brazil (45%).
Gavin Mee, vice president of EMEA West and North, Palo Alto Networks, said, “This survey highlights the growing concern about cyber risk among CEOs, leading to increased dialogue on cybersecurity at all levels of the organization. and the need to strengthen education,” he said.
According to a Delinea survey released in May 2023, just 39% of IT security leaders believe their leaders have a solid understanding of the role of cybersecurity in business success.
