Please use a modern browser to access the
The 2021 Future of cyber survey report
or download the PDF.
Future of cyber survey Complexity is the new normal. How companies are achieving visibility Future of cyber survey Complexity is the new normal. How companies are achieving visibility
Conducting our survey at this time, when businesses have been forced to respond to an unprecedented global challenge, has proven uniquely instructive. Complexity is here to stay. Hybrid work environments are becoming a fixture, the cloud is growing in importance to almost every type of enterprise and as devices and applications evolve they are evermore connected. There is no choice but to gain greater visibility across ecosystems lacking clearly defined perimeters. The stakes—be they operational disruption, reputational loss or deflated equity valuations—are too high. Just as complexity is the problem, the solutions are also far from simple. This year, we expanded our survey beyond leaders with direct oversight for cyber to include those who should be cyber’s greatest champions: CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CIOs and CISOs. Their sentiments are similar to one another, with variations seen across geographies and industries.
Gaining visibility into complexity.
How cyber is shaping the future. Deloitte Future of Cyber Survey Today, we find ourselves living the reality of a cyber everywhere world where digital transformation initiatives continue to accelerate amid the emergence of a pervasive remote workforce. It often appears as if technological innovation and the culture it produces are surging ahead of our ability to understand, measure and respond to exponentially increasing risk. Despite the elevated risk environment, digital transformation and migration to the cloud continue to be priorities for our clients. More than simply improving efficiency, as data flows across organizations it drives new ways of value creation, connecting lines of business and using customer data to enrich experiences. Our survey data underscores this migration—94% of CFO respondents indicated they are considering moving their financial systems or ERP. to the cloud 600 C-level executives $500M Minimum revenue Headquartered 40% Americas 28% EMEA 32% Asia Pacific The state of play In order to remain competitive, today’s enterprises run an array of technologies that combine on-premises infrastructure with hybrid IT and an assortment of third- party cloud providers. These sophisticated integrated environments require new forms of management distinct from traditional in-house IT architectures. A clear plurality of the CIOs and CISOs we surveyed (41%) acknowledge that transformation and gaining visibility across increasingly complex hybrid ecosystems is the greatest challenge they face. In addition to the pressures of the marketplace, the pandemic heralds the arrival of remote work as a permanent feature of employment. Organizations, large and small, have rapidly transformed work environments and in doing so dramatically increased their attack surfaces, often with little to no time to consider security implications. Not surprisingly, there’s been an uptick in attacks, with 69% of respondents reporting an increase or significant increase in threats to their business between early 2020 and May 2021–this was consistent across industries and geographies. 32% of our global C-suite respondents indicated operational disruption was the greatest impact, followed by intellectual property theft (22%) and drops in share price (19%). Never trust. Always verify. When asked, What are the greatest barriers to managing cybersecurity across their organizations? respondents ranked data management traversing complex perimeters the highest (44%), followed by a need for better prioritization of cyber risk across the enterprise (31%). Fortunately, it’s now feasible to deploy Zero Trust architecture, which replaces simple verification of entities with real-time access decisions based on continuous risk assessment. When implemented it is an effective response to the dissolution of perimeters in today’s ecosystems, recognizing that every component in an architecture is vulnerable and every layer needs protection. Made possible by recent advances in computational power, Zero Trust’s emergence and adoption point to wider cultural shifts in organizations that reveal how the role of cyber is changing and its importance elevating. More than a technological fix, Zero Trust’s set of interwoven solutions provide visibility into adversarial activity, associated business risk, and insight into changes needed to reduce the risk. This insight demands coordination between IT and business lines as well as enterprise-wide education and training. Biggest impacts of cyber incidents or breaches on organizations* * Respondents were asked to select up to two responses, so percentages will not add up to 100%. Realigning your defenses As hackers grow more sophisticated and understand the market value of assets—whether it’s pharmaceutical IP, engineering and product patents, customer or other critical data—organizations continue to step up their cyber defense budgets. Almost 75% of respondents who had more than $30B in revenue said they will spend more than $100M on cybersecurity this year. The challenge is to ensure this expenditure results in greater visibility into the amplified risk of today’s increasingly complex ecosystems. Beyond acquiring technology and expertise, it requires organizational change to facilitate programmatic governance that extends beyond the enterprise to include partners and third-party providers. As technology changes, so does the role of the CISO. Once cyber permeates an enterprise, it’s imperative to reposition where the CISO sits in the organization chart. Beyond simplifying reporting, closer relationships to the CEO enhance the CISO’s ability to understand business priorities and to have visibility into innovations as they occur. This new operational role of the CISO with greater engagement across the organization enables the cyber team to ensure necessary requirements, technical solutions and controls can be built into innovation initiatives from the ground up. This not only minimizes risk at the outset but risk of overall product and service development. This deeper cultural impact of cyber is why in this year’s edition we’ve expanded the current survey beyond leaders with direct oversight for cyber to include those who should be cyber’s greatest champions: CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CIOs and CISOs. Their sentiments are similar to one another, with variations seen across geographies and industries. The view to the future There is no simple solution, organizational or technological, to gaining visibility into the growing complexity of integrated ecosystems that underpin modern business. However, there are a number of measures, organizational, cultural and operational, when taken together, that can enable organizations to embed cyber in the core of their business initiatives, in their culture and into their continuously evolving technology ecosystems. In this report, we explore some of those measures and underscore the importance of organizations’ ability to gain visibility into the risk which complexity creates now, and into the future as the next wave of technological evolution continues to increase our interconnectivity. “We’re in a period of transition and rapid evolution. Two of the biggest challenges businesses face are hybrid IT and transformation. That’s creating a much more diverse environment and driving up complexity. Greater visibility, particularly into cloud deployments, is the number one thing organizations are looking for.” Emily Mossburg, Deloitte Global Cyber Leader Cyber and the
challenge of transformation Deloitte Future of Cyber Survey Across every industry, remaining competitive requires new services and products be rapidly developed and brought to market. Much more than simply digitizing existing processes, innovative business models are enveloping supply chains and creating novel realms of customer experience. This transformation also exposes enterprises to new forms of cyber risk, requiring new cyber strategies to protect evolving business models. To manage these risks, C-suite and Board members need to embrace the change, create effective governance across lines of business, and evolve risk management processes to achieve end-to-end visibility of all newly connected areas of business, including those run by third parties. Success depends upon the commitment of senior management, their ability to understand cyber risk followed by effective investment in security. When asked to rank their digital transformation initiatives in the next 12 months, survey respondents rated data analytics number one (16%), followed by cloud (15%) and new or upgraded ERP programs (15%) as their top priorities. The addition of the OT/ICS response option and resulting response selection (14% designated this as a top priority) to this year’s survey is indicative of the efforts we are seeing across industry to digitize and modernize factories and operating technology environments. The speed and scale of change is truly revolutionary. When the world rushed online at the advent of Covid-19 this became immediately apparent. Entire business sectors were transformed almost instantly as huge sections of the workforce suddenly began operating remotely. Fortunately, much of the required digital ecosystem—from cloud and shadow IT to industrial control systems—was already in place and ready to scale up rapidly. But less obvious are the myriad cyber risks underlying this transformation, and few businesses currently possess the means to understand and mitigate them to an acceptable level. How organizations are prioritizing digital transformation initiatives Understanding cyber risk Because today’s cyber threats impact entire businesses, potentially crippling operations and rapidly destroying hard-won reputations, it is vital that boards assess cyber risk in terms they can understand. They need to be able to compare cyber threats to risks they are experienced at handling. Analyzing cyber risk profiles should be as familiar as grasping the health of their balance sheet. Once they can comprehend the nature and scale of the cyber risks they are exposed to, they will know where to invest to best mitigate dangers. According to our survey, 41% of respondents indicated cyber maturity assessments are used to guide cyber investment decisions, 35% said they employ risk quantification tools, and 23% say they rely on the experience of the company’s cyber leadership. When asked how often they conduct risk analyses/ threat modeling for new and/or existing applications, 37% of CIOs and CISOs indicated they do so quarterly, and 29% do so monthly. While the responsibility for these assessments typically falls to CIOs and CISOs, it is critical the broader set of stakeholders understand the relevance and importance of such efforts. “The main objective for C-suite and Board members must be gaining a full understanding of the actual risk that digital transformation is exposing their companies to, as well as having the levers to manage that risk on a level playing field with all other types of risk” Matthew Holt, Global Cyber Strategy & Transformation Leader, Deloitte Cyber Understanding cyber risk The pressure to compete at scale very often means business leaders’ digital transformation efforts focus on outcomes without fully contemplating cyber risks. Beating the competition to market creates tunnel vision with significant blind spots. With cyber permeating everywhere from customer touchpoints to intelligent factories and the remote devices of employees, the days of a siloed IT department managing antivirus software and passwords are over. It’s no longer enough to just keep the network running, broader and deeper thinking is required. Today’s CISO now needs the authority to influence all the lines of business, gather information from across the enterprise and be able to communicate directly with the board and senior management. Not to mention the investment of resources and talent to adequately safeguard the organization’s most strategic priorities and assets. This is often a hard sell to the CFO, as what you hope to show from a large cyber investment is usually...nothing. Meaning, zero cyber incidents is money well spent. So how are CISOs planning their cyber budgets? In 2019, CISOs and CIOs told us that their cyber budget was evenly spread across various cyber programs. In 2021, this hasn’t changed—CISO and CIO respondents again reported budgets are similarly divided. C-suite leaders should understand that to manage cyber risk there is not a one and done solution. Therefore, cyber budgets are increasing with greater attention given to threat intelligence, detection and monitoring, cyber transformation plus data security. Across the globe, CISOs and CIOs are consistently investing in scaled cyber solutions in/for the cloud; cyber/technical resilience; and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven threat assessment and identification, to build their organizations’ cyber defense. Organizations' cyber budget is somewhat evenly spread to broadly mitigate risk
Building the right cyber team It’s not realistic to expect board members or the C-suite to become cybersecurity experts. But it’s up to the board to build a cyber team that gives them the visibility they need and to provide pertinent information in terms they can understand. The key hiring decision needs to occur at the board or senior management level.
Individualized or intrusive?
Using personal data ethically Deloitte Future of Cyber Survey People expect personalized, targeted experiences. We want everything from food delivery to travel and healthcare to be frictionless, based on our past interactions. What we don’t want is the sense we’re being followed everywhere by marketers feeding us an endless diet of coupons for things we’re not interested in. How companies manage customer data, connect online and in-person experiences while protecting privacy can be the difference between profit or loss and even long-term survival. Privacy by design For every customer-facing project, it’s important to take privacy and security into account at the beginning. Ask yourself, how important for our business model is having this degree of intimacy with our customers? Carefully think through the type of information you need to provide the right level of service. Then understand who needs to access it and how it will be stored and protected. When we asked Chief Marketing Officers if they were able to measure and demonstrate compliance with global data privacy regulations, the majority (85%) responded that they could. Avoid data bloat Simply harvesting reams of data in the hope that it’s useful in the future is a drag on resources and likely a recipe for failure. Customers resent giving up personal information when they don’t clearly see a benefit. Collecting and effectively using data to create authentic, personalized and human experiences is a catalyst for growth. The flip side is the more data you have, the more risk you encounter. It’s all about balance. When asked, the CMOs we polled were evenly split between answering it was more important to collect data to personalize customer experience versus more important not to collect personal data in order to protect against a breach.   “Customers don’t think about their data like businesses in terms of privacy, security, and identity. They think, ’Does the company have my best interests in mind? Are they using my data in a way that benefits me or them? Are they doing everything they can to keep my personal information tight?” Annika Sponselee, Global Data & Privacy Leader, Deloitte Cyber Value and trust Today, people realize their personal data has intrinsic value. They see handing it over as an investment and want to know what is the return: providing personal information should make life easier. Like anything of worth, it must also be safe and secure. Also, people are demanding agency, seeking to choose how and when then their data is used. When companies reliably deliver on their promises, customer relationships deepen. The extent customers trust your company is reflected in their behavior. High trust scores correlate closely with repeat business—their chance of buying again rises 540% when they believe companies are reliable. Perhaps just as significantly, they will support you strongly on social media. As a result, trusted businesses greatly outperform the rest—for example, trusted companies were 2x* more resilient during the past year. According to our survey, 91% of CMOs stated they feel their organizations balance data collection with engendering trust either “very well” or “somewhat well”. Such a high confidence level begs the question, is this view shared by other C-suite members? It certainly points to the need for a collaborative approach to ensure blind spots aren’t overlooked. * Deloitte HX TrustID research October 2020 – June 2021 Ethics over regulation Increasingly, consumers are deploying their purchasing power to support companies with sustainable environmental policies and are proactive on social issues. Their concern also applies to how companies use personal data. Traditionally, companies have sought guidance from regulators about what they should and shouldn’t do. While compliance with the various laws around the globe is vital, it’s no longer sufficient to just assume people are willing to share personal data at all if you cannot explain the purpose. Plus, the explanation needs to be in plain language and easily understood. Regardless of location, companies who bring trust into their DNA and clearly communicate their willingness to adhere to the privacy rights of customers are benefitting from greater faithfulness. Making it easy for customers to access, delete or move their data should be part of your simple and straightforward user agreement. When customers see that a company thinks through its data policies and can chart its own course, they are more willing to put their data onboard.
Make trust your guiding light Outline the experience you’re trying to create and understand the data that you need (and don’t need) to do it. Hold everyone in the organization accountable for building trust.
Begin with privacy by design. Use the data that you collect. Don’t collect data you don’t need. Dissolve silos so information is accessible and flows freely throughout your organization. Create seamless experiences that engender trust. If/when there is a breach, use the moment to learn and build more trust from your mistakes. Make your communication department integral to everything you do.
Are you able to measure and demonstrate compliance with global data privacy regulations? In your opinion, how well do you feel your marketing organization balances data collection with engendering consumer trust? Dissolve the silos CMOs and experience officers tend to make decisions based on brand and marketing requirements and only at the very end check with the CISO if data has been gathered correctly (and usually, the answer is, “No!”). Everyone is on a different team. One team sees their job as gathering as much data as they can, the other wants to only gather what’s necessary and protect it. A better approach is to examine together what is the right balance between capturing the information required to deliver a seamless experience and the need to mitigate risk for both the company and its customers. Before using data to connect the dots of customer experience, organizations need people who can make connections outside of their silos. It’s a two-way street. When designing privacy policies and communications, bring in marketing. This is increasingly central to brand intentions and messaging, so they can help. Into the breach Despite taking the greatest precautions, data breaches happen. It’s wise to consider them an eventuality and be prepared. Getting caught flatfooted will make a bad situation worse. How you respond sends clear signals about your brand. Not only should you rehearse an incident response plan alongside your cyber team testing scenarios around a data breach but also collaborate on the recovery plan and related communications strategy. According to our survey, CMOs indicated that work is being done to fully align with the cyber organization with 46% saying they participate in such planning and testing once a quarter. Global responses vary with CMOs in Argentina, Germany and Australia revealing a higher level of integration with cyber teams over other countries. When a breach does occur, regard it as your obligation to fully inform customers about what has occurred. Clearly outline the services you are providing in response and think about which channels of communication best convey your message: Does it warrant a personal letter from the CEO? A gift? Or other compensation? Despite the gravity of the circumstances, deftly communicating with your customers can also be an opportunity to deepen your relationship with them. Handling a difficult situation well by putting the interests of your customers first can help your reputation to quickly rebound and inspire even greater trust. How often do you participate in your organization's Cyber Incident Response planning and testing? Securing a world without boundaries Deloitte Future of Cyber Survey In legacy environments, IT resources were contained within clearly defined boundaries. Whatever resided externally was untrusted and all internal traffic was inherently trusted. And now? We live in a hyper-connected world, where everything is increasingly interconnected. The perimeter has essentially dissolved for most modern enterprises. 72% of survey respondents indicated their organizations experienced between one and 10 cyber incidents and breaches in the last year alone. When securing the enterprise, we can no longer inherently trust anything. The challenge today becomes, “how can you remove inherent trust altogether?” It’s a revolutionary change to the way we build modern security architectures. Fortunately, Zero Trust has the capabilities to meet the task. Enter Zero Trust Zero Trust is not a technology or a single solution. It is a set of architectural policies that are based on the fundamental principle of “never trust, always verify”. The concept commits to shifting from the traditional perimeter-based or “castle and moat approach” of managing security, to one where trust is established between individual resources and consumers, as and when required. With Zero Trust, trusted connections are established based on internal and external factors, which are constantly revalidated.
What is driving the move to Zero Trust
The rapid pace of digitization is increasing IT complexity and driving up cost. An increasingly mobile workforce now expects to be able to work from anywhere, on any device. The development of digital products and services shifting towards cloud adoption. The demand for better and easier business collaboration and supply chain integration. Adversaries are very sophisticated and are outmatching current cyber defenses.
Real-time access control Finally, we have the power to compute and the technology to inform dynamic and risk-based access control decisions in real-time. It’s no longer binary: Allow or Deny. Every connection request can be verified against a set of contextual factors to derive a risk-based access decision: Is the source connection from an authenticated and authorized user? Is it coming from a known and secure device? Does this person usually connect from this geographic location? Is the time of connection consistent with the user’s history? Are there any other signals or threat intelligence that should be taken into consideration before access is granted? “There’s a misconception that adopting the Zero Trust concept requires a massive “rip and re- place” initiative. It’s important to step back and think strategically about taking iterative and incre- mental steps towards achieving your target state.” Andrew Rafla, US Zero Trust Leader, Deloitte Cyber The current situation Our 2021 survey outlines the challenges of managing cyber risk across the enterprise faced by CIOs and CISOs. Their greatest challenges are transformation and Hybrid IT, with cyber hygiene, talent limitations and shadow IT not far behind. Those challenges will only get more complex through accelerated digital transformations. We must start over and build security architectures that can sustain the increasing speed of digital transformation. The time to act is now! Step by step Most companies—knowingly or unknowingly—have embarked on a Zero Trust trajectory. Their approaches differ by the degree they are tactical, architectural or strategically led. While Zero Trust is relevant across all industries and sectors, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Zero Trust is a multi-year initiative—a transformational change, that breaks down the silos between business, IT and the various cyber domains. Any Zero Trust journey will face pitfalls and obstacles requiring strong leadership support, investment and buy-in from across your organization to ensure success. Consideration needs to be given to the business drivers, existing capabilities, and use cases relevant to your organization. It’s important to keep cyber fundamentals in mind: What are you trying to protect? Where do those assets reside? Who (identities) and what (devices) should be able to access those assets, and under what conditions? To answer these questions, organizations need to prioritize IT asset management and data governance capabilities to understand the classification and criticality of their assets and data...and leverage this context when creating access control policies. Then defining your goals and embedding them in your end-to-end strategy is the surest way to achieve your desired business outcomes. This, however, isn’t easy. When asked about their biggest challenge in managing cybersecurity across their organization, “increase of data management/ perimeter and complexities” was the number one hurdle cited by respondents. Much more than a technology solution, Zero Trust is a cultural change. The change to the overall organization cannot be underestimated. Softer factors such as communications, role-specific training, awareness, and operational process adjustments are key elements for success. Overall, such programs require a strategy aligned to the business, supported by strong leadership, dedicated architecture, technical workstreams and compelling pilots, that coalesce the commitment across all stakeholders. Which of the following is the most challenging aspect of cybersecurity management across your organization’s infrastructure? An enormous upside Embedded in a corporate strategy, Zero Trust can bring a series of strategic advantages. By reducing operational complexity and simplifying ecosystem integration it can: Improve customer experience Enhance business agility Improve business resilience Reduce the threat surface Realize cost savings Improve collaboration with business partners Accelerate cloud adoption The North Star Tech giants are leading the Zero Trust maturity journey and apply these principles to develop, run and deliver secure services. Other leading organizations are adopting Zero-Trust strategies to support business priorities, digital transformation, and corporate risk strategies. When modernizing your own architectures, understanding how the leaders innovated and achieved tremendous scale can help drive your digital transformation, too. There is no doubt the change is happening. The sooner you take charge of your transition to Zero Trust, the safer the journey will be. It’s far better to be in the driver’s seat, determining your destination...the time for Zero Trust is now. “The time has come to fully leverage Zero Trust principles and build modern security architectures, that can keep up and enable digital transformation.” MARIUS VON SPRETI, GLOBAL ZERO TRUST LEADER, DELOITTE CYBER Connecting the emerging technologies spectrum Deloitte Future of Cyber Survey Headlines often focus on cutting-edge technologies like quantum computing, 5G, and digital twins but the full spectrum also includes brownfield technologies, like operational technology, that have existed for decades in the manufacturing environment. “Many organizations overlook the risks associated with connecting existing technologies already in their environments. The attack surface increases across the entire ecosystem.” Dana Spataru, Global Cyber Emerging Technology Leader, Deloitte Cyber Connecting the emerging technologies spectrum Headlines often focus on cutting-edge technologies like quantum computing, 5G, and digital twins but the full spectrum also includes brownfield technologies, like operational technology, that have existed for decades in the manufacturing environment. What’s “emerging”, whether the technology is brand new or has long been deployed, is its connection to the Internet, and how the physical and digital worlds are becoming connected in nearly every way imaginable. We’re witnessing a digital metamorphosis across everything from medical devices to transportation to agriculture and beyond. Not only is it transforming the way we make and use almost everything, but it brings security risks that were never conceivable before. When CIOs and CISOs ranked what will drive their adoption of emerging technologies in the next three years, security capabilities came out on top (64%), followed by enhancing data privacy capabilities (59%), and compliance capabilities (50%). Growing connectivity Traditionally isolated from the Internet, the Operational Technology (OT) space has recently experienced waves of ransomware attacks. The immediate impact on production has drawn attention to the vulnerabilities of connectedness, a situation exacerbated by COVID-19 as more companies have opted to remotely manage plants and equipment. It’s important to understand that all connected ecosystems, whether for medical devices, vehicles, or even entire cities, share similar risk characteristics. Medical devices may have been built for old on-premises platforms in hospitals but are now used at home via the Internet. Electric cars—expected to rapidly replace fossil fuel-powered fleets across the globe—often require connectivity for enablement. These connected vehicles need parts from a slew of geographically dispersed suppliers who may not have built security into their components. As cities connect more of their services and critical infrastructure, they are partnering with numerous third parties from cloud providers to platform owners. In every situation the attack surface grows, risks multiply and responsibility blurs. Which of the following will drive adoption of emerging technologies? * *Respondents were asked to select as many responses as apply, so percentages will not total 100%. Out of sight. But in touch. For small all-digital organizations, a single view of cyber risk is still possible. In the short term, for larger entities with complex interconnected ecosystems that’s no longer a reality. The solution is letting each party assume security responsibility and accountability for the processes under its purview. When everybody is effectively covering their part of the ecosystem making that more secure, overall risk reduces, even if there is no holistic view of it. The speed with which entities can do that differs based on the type and complexity of technologies, but the idea is to effectively cover the basics of security and safely share information. Right now, the fix is simple. Over the long run, organizations should keep in mind there is a lot to gain in efficiency and effectiveness if processes are aligned between areas. The sooner that alignment happens, the faster higher security maturity can be reached. Both centralized and decentralized models can be effective but they should ultimately combine into an integrated single cyber risk view. The heart of business From a governance standpoint, emerging technology stacks can be very complex, but someone needs to own the security agenda. Having board recognition and support helps facilitate not only acquiring and managing technology but creating the right strategic partnerships. What’s making this easier is that unlike traditional IT, emerging technology is closely connected to the core business. For example, if a manufacturing business experienced a cyberattack on its OT, it’s easy to see how this would quickly become a problem beyond the CISO. With production grinding to a halt, the head of operations would be immediately concerned, revenue loss would pull in the CFO, and CEO, negative publicity would afflict the CMO, and so on. Security as an asset The mirror image of the above scenario is that emerging technology makes the positive impact of cybersecurity more apparent to business leaders. If a CEO wants to sell more products building security into them makes them more appealing in our increasingly connected world. The focus shifts from security as a cost to seeing it in terms of value creation. This enables conversations about how reducing downtime leads to improved processes. Security, of course, is necessary, and although it underpins the discourse, it becomes the secondary argument.
To simplify a field that can encompass an endless array of technology, Deloitte Cyber focuses on these specific areas: Together they cover the vast majority of scenarios we encounter in our practice.
“Despite the general belief that recent major cyberattacks are the result of increased sophistication, most of them are actually happening due to a lack of basic security controls and hygiene. It’s not necessarily complicated.” DANA SPATARU, GLOBAL CYBER EMERGING TECHNOLOGY LEADER, DELOITTE CYBER Not one size fits all Deloitte Future of Cyber Survey Cyber consistently ranks in the top three enterprise risks across industries–a view shared by those on the Board and Executive Committee as well as those tasked with managing cyber risk. There is an increased understanding in all industries of how IP is vulnerable and customer trust is fragile. However, industries lie across a spectrum of digital transformation with varying degrees of regulatory maturity around cyber as well as a host of geographical and other considerations. While many common themes have emerged during the pandemic, such as supply chain security and remote work accelerating the need for zero trust, there isn’t a single approach to solving the cyber challenge applicable to all industries. Whatever direction you take, it’s vital to be aware of some increasingly important areas of interest. Many governments are ramping up regulatory efforts to counter widespread cyber threats, making cutting-edge security initiatives imperative. Where regulations aren’t driving change, the growing connectivity and personalization of technology is also forcing ecosystems to be rearchitected on secure footings. Finally, the realization that all industries are vulnerable has led to broader efforts to share knowledge—being adaptable and learning what works in other industries will become increasingly relevant. “What’s critical for leadership is to bring cyber in at the beginning, when you’re designing change. What data, what assets are part of the change? What technologies do you need to protect them?” Simon Owen, Global Clients and Industries Leader, Deloitte Cyber A regulatory explosion In some industries, cyberattacks have resulted in an outsized regulatory response. In May 2021, the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, the largest supplier of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel on the US east coast, precipitated a new executive order and directives for energy companies to improve their cybersecurity. Across Energy Resources and Industrials (ER&I) the urgent pressure to upgrade cyber defenses exist alongside other longer-term directives such as the move to decarbonization. With compressed timelines—2035 the recently revised goal in the US—the transformation of the energy landscape will require tremendous digitization to achieve its goals. This includes shifting to 5G and deploying an array of connected technologies, which bring their own increased demands for cybersecurity. Greater personalization. Greater risk. In life sciences and health care a new model of direct interaction with patients is driving the need for increased cybersecurity. As health care providers seek to monitor recipients’ progress, and life sciences companies focus on patient-centered services to improve health outcomes, using remote devices and apps raises concerns about data protection and privacy. This monitoring and use of apps allow for the rapid accumulation of aggregate data enabling companies to create cloud-based data lakes to gather insights that can lead to improvements in R&D, treatments and support, patient adherence, and product launches. All these technological advances have cybersecurity consequences. Ecosystems need to be designed and built so they protect, encrypt and anonymize data plus prevent leakage. In general, global Life Sciences companies are more fearful about being hacked than they are preoccupied grappling with regulations, which are often inconsistent across territories. Establishing then maintaining trust is vital when connecting with their customers, and protecting IP is paramount for business. Knowledge sharing The ubiquity of cyber threats and the vulnerabilities that have been exposed during the pandemic has had an effect on the way knowledge is shared inside industries. While reputational damage remains a side-effect of attack, sharing information about incidents is regarded as valuable and helpful, often perceived as a redemptive step helping to repair brand reputations. Enterprises have realized that being secretive about cybersecurity doesn’t confer competitive advantage but can, in fact, compromise their entire sector. Governments have acknowledged the importance of collective defense, helping to establish public/private partnerships for information sharing such as the Information Sharing and Analytics Centers (ISACs) in the US. Less formally, CISOs are eager to learn from each other. Although it’s more common for them to connect with peers inside their industry, cross-pollination from more mature industries like financial services and oil & gas to less mature ones such as life sciences and manufacturing is starting to occur. Also, CISOs themselves often migrate from one industry to another bringing their experience with them. We hope to see more connections and sharing across industry and internationally in the near future.
Lessons learned from the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack Proactively plan for a crisis. Prepare for technology disruption scenarios including cyber incidents: Identify assets critical to your operations which could appeal as targets Segment your critical systems and OT network Accelerate your adoption of Zero Trust Increase resiliency of your business: Place as much importance on response efforts as prevention and detection Go on the offense. Modern security principles such as proactive threat hunting, machine learning, and self-healing systems can help you take an offensive approach.
A clean line of sight. Deloitte Future of Cyber Survey As digital transformation permeates every aspect of business, it is increasingly clear that it is both an incredible enabler—allowing people and processes to achieve new possibilities—as well as a means to amplify and spread risk. Conducting our survey at this time, when businesses have been forced to respond to an unprecedented global challenge, has proven uniquely instructive. There is no choice but to gain greater visibility across ecosystems lacking clearly defined perimeters. The stakes—be they operational disruption, reputational loss or deflated equity valuations—are too high. Just as complexity is the problem, the solutions are also far from simple.
Complexity is here to stay. Hybrid work environments are becoming a fixture, the cloud is growing in importance to almost every type of enterprise and as devices and applications evolve they are evermore connected.
Shift responsibility upwards The clear takeaway is, organizations that do not incorporate cybersecurity into every aspect of their business risk leaving much of digital transformation’s value on the table as well as increase their vulnerability to attack. Our most important recommendation in this regard is to fully empower the CISO. This means directly reporting to the CEO. Just as significantly, this move must give the CISO visibility across all lines of business. It’s a two-way street. The CISO must provide risk assessments in a manner that is comprehensible to the board. But not only does the CISO report up, he or she needs to be involved in new business developments from the start to ensure proper cyber governance down the line. Reach across silos As technology allows information to flow freely throughout organizations, humans must follow suit. It’s critical to break down institutional silos and get lines of business to collaborate on cyber. Facilitate strategy, product development, compliance, IT and marketing sitting down together to understand the data assets needed and the security and privacy requirements around them at the very beginning of new initiatives. Designing with security and privacy in mind is the best way to avoid headaches later. Implement Zero Trust Complexity is a reality. Relying on the methods of the past to authenticate users and other entities is courting disaster, a situation easily exploited by hackers, often with dire impacts. Fortunately, the ability to continuously evaluate risk and apply real-time review to access controls is now something that can be incorporated in complex architectures. Security is an asset Data is the lifeblood of digital transformation. While it’s vital to recognize the functionality of data–how it drives business outcomes and customer experience—it’s just as important to appreciate how it creates value over the long run. Companies that are associated with exemplary data governance, thoughtful privacy policy and robust security earn the trust of customers and business partners alike. Although it’s tempting to think about cybersecurity only as an expense, considering its impact on brand and sustaining shareholder value is central in the new world of hyperconnectivity. Implementing security is not a project, but a promise to carefully handle data, communication and business interaction end-to-end. Sharing knowledge While there isn’t a single simple solution to managing cybersecurity, many of the threats facing organizations on the road of digital transformation are shared. With cyberattacks becoming more prevalent, no industry or geography is immune from them, but we can learn from each other how to effectively handle an incident when one does occur. To this end, sharing experiences and knowledge with peers is an essential element of improving the security environment all round. Risk and reward Whatever your cyber budget, adopting these approaches will help ensure that your resources are used more effectively. It’s tempting to focus on the complexity and plethora of risks that transformation heralds, but it’s equally important to recognize the upside. When you gain the visibility you need, and you experience the agility that hybrid IT brings to your organization, when you’ve earned the trust of your customers and you feel confident with complexity, you experience rewards at an entirely new scale. Although it’s tempting to think about cybersecurity only as an expense, considering its impact on brand and sustaining shareholder value is central in the new world of hyperconnectivity Explore the data Deloitte Future of Cyber Survey
Threats What is the top cyber threat you are most concerned about based on your organization’s business model? Given the recognition of the importance of cyber security and the investment in various cyber solutions in recent years, why, in your opinion, are there still so many successful cyber attacks/incidents/breaches? Board involvement To whom does the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) report to in your organization? To the best of your knowledge, approximately how often, if ever, is cybersecurity on your Board’s agenda? Cross organization How does the cybersecurity division at your organization primarily interface with the various business units across the enterprise? In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges in managing cybersecurity across your organization? Implementation and prioritization Which of the following actions have been implemented in your organization to increase your cyber and information security? An operational and strategic plan to defend your organization against cyber threats Regular cyber awareness training among all employees of the organization Procedure for continuously improving and developing the organization's hygiene with cyber and information security (so-called cyber hygiene) A cyber incident response plan that gets updated and tested regularly Regular voice-of-the-customer input to cyber and data privacy preferences How is your organization prioritizing the following digital transformation initiatives (including and/or apart from security initiatives) in the next 12 months? If your organization/company is considering a new or major ERP upgrade, are you considering the Cyber implications of this implementation or upgrade? Cyber threats and incidents How have the cyber threats to your business evolved... ...prior to 2020 ...during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-May 2021)? How many cyber incidents or breaches are you aware of that your organization experienced, in the last year, whether they required disclosure or not? What were the biggest impacts of cyber incidents or breaches on your organization? (Please select up to 2 answers) While collecting your customers personal data, which is of higher importance between improved customer experience versus avoiding data breach? Investment How do you expect the adoption of emerging technology to change your organization in the next 3 years? (rank the following) Which of the following statements best describes how your organization tracks decisions on cybersecurity and investments? This includes decisions over architecture, security controls, threat detection, incident response, recovery, and testing. What type of investments or requirements are influencing your commitment to security in the cloud? Answer the survey questions below to see how you compare against your peers. Threats What is the top cyber threat you are most concerned about based on your organization’s business model? Please select one option Given the recognition of the importance of cyber security and the investment in various cyber solutions in recent years, why, in your opinion, are there still so many successful cyber attacks/incidents/breaches? Please select one option Board involvement To whom does the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) report to in your organization? Please select one option To the best of your knowledge, approximately how often, if ever, is cybersecurity on your Board’s agenda? Please select one option Cross organization How does the cybersecurity division at your organization primarily interface with the various business units across the enterprise? Please select all that apply In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges in managing cybersecurity across your organization? Please select up to two options Implementation and prioritization Which of the following actions have been implemented in your organization to increase your cyber and information security? Please select one option for each answer An operational and strategic plan to defend your organization against cyber threats Regular cyber awareness training among all employees of the organization Procedure for continuously improving and developing the organization's hygiene with cyber and information security (so-called cyber hygiene) A cyber incident response plan that gets updated and tested regularly Regular voice-of-the-customer input to cyber and data privacy preferences How is your organization prioritizing the following digital transformation initiatives (including and/or apart from security initiatives) in the next 12 months? Please sort the options from most to least important If your organization/company is considering a new or major ERP upgrade, are you considering the Cyber implications of this implementation or upgrade? Please select one option Cyber threats and incidents How have the cyber threats to your business evolved... Please select one option for each period of time ...prior to 2020 ...during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-May 2021)? How many cyber incidents or breaches are you aware of that your organization experienced, in the last year, whether they required disclosure or not? Please select one option What were the biggest impacts of cyber incidents or breaches on your organization? (Please select up to 2 answers) Please select two options While collecting your customers personal data, which is of higher importance between improved customer experience versus avoiding data breach? Please select two options Investment How do you expect the adoption of emerging technology to change your organization in the next 3 years? Please sort the options from most to least important Which of the following statements best describes how your organization tracks decisions on cybersecurity and investments? This includes decisions over architecture, security controls, threat detection, incident response, recovery, and testing. This includes decisions over architecture, security controls, threat detection, incident response, recovery, and testing. Please select one option What type of investments or requirements are influencing your commitment to security in the cloud? Please select one option Contacts

Read our temporary accessibility statement | Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its global network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients.  Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a more detailed description of DTTL and its member firms.  

Deloitte Israel & Co. is a firm in Deloitte Global network. Deloitte Israel Group a leading professional services firms, providing a wide range of world-class audit, tax, consulting, financial advisory and trust services. The firm serves domestic and international clients, public institutions and promising fast-growth companies whose shares are traded on the Israeli, US, European and foreign capital markets.

©2024 Deloitte Israel & Co.