As the world becomes smaller, cyber is getting bigger. It’s moving beyond an organisation’s IT environments and into the products it creates, the factories where it makes them, the spaces where its employees conceive them, and where its customers use them. Cyber risk is at the centre of digital transformation. Understanding that is as transformative as cyber itself—and to be successful in this new era, organisations should embrace a “cyber everywhere” mentality.
We looked into how leaders are embracing the “cyber everywhere” mindset; how they are operating in this new digital world – a world more open to cyber threat - and how they are collaborating with partners and other key stakeholders to address the increased scrutiny around cyber that these challenges bring.
The findings might surprise you
We uncovered a stark disconnect between an organisation’s transformation goals and the reality of finite resources they need to work with. We suspect that our survey respondents are not alone. With all the hype around the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and other technologies comes the realisation that strategically securing “everything” is near impossible. Organisations are grappling with how to embrace a cyber-everywhere reality against the operational demands of their business.
Charting a course to the future of cyber
How are organisations adapting to the new realm of cyber everywhere? Are they building the plane while they’re flying it? C-suite leaders explained how they are constructing their “planes” and what tools they are investing in to ensure that they safely land and take off again tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that.
Key findings
- Executives are all-in for digital transformation
Survey respondents say they are not prioritising one, but a number of digital transformation initiatives to simplify environments and increase efficiencies. However, those surveyed view digital transformation as one of the most challenging aspect of cyber risk management, and yet indicated that less than 10% of cyber budgets are allocated to these digital transformation efforts. - The challenge of cyber is everywhere
There are notable gaps in organisational capabilities to meet today’s cybersecurity demands. Difficulty prioritising cyber risk across the business, lack of management alignment on priorities, lack of skilled cyber professionals and lack of adequate finding were cited as the most challenging aspects of cybersecurity management. - Embedding security into application development
Certain cyber vulnerabilities may be linked to gaps in cyber defence investment and prioritisation. Forward-thinking organisations are interweaving security, privacy, policy and control into their DevOps culture, processes and tools. - Cyber needs a leader with the authority to drive change
Cyber risk has never been more important with executives and boards continuing to face mounting pressure to ensure security and privacy along with success and profitability. Your cyber leadership team needs to drive the clear communication and implementation of security across the enterprise. Embedding cyber professionals into the business enables your cyber risk team to be more strategic and to manage the cyber risk associated with digital transformation. - A challenge to close the gap
On the surface, it may appear that leaders have digital transformation clearly in their sights. But in a landscape of constant digital change and ever evolving cyber threats, a distinct gap is forming between what organisational leadership believes is adequate cybersecurity implementation and the effort truly needed to address cyber risk across the enterprise.
Is your organisation prepared to close the gap and succeed anywhere?
> Explore the full report
About the report:
The Future of Cyber survey was conducted in conjunction with Wakefield Research. We surveyed 500 C-level executives who oversee cybersecurity at global companies with $500 million or more in annual revenue. This included 100 chief information security officers, 100 chief security officers, 100 chief technology officers, 100 chief information officers, and 100 chief revenue officers.
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