Less than half (47%) of cybersecurity professionals have a plan in place to address attacks on devices and equipment despite nine in ten expressing concerns about future threats, according to the Neustar International Security Council (NISC).
These findings come at a time when 48% of companies have suffered a cyberattack against their IoT or connected devices and equipment in the past year.
Just over one quarter (27%) reported that they feel «very confident» that their staff will know how to protect the company from such attacks, while 38% claim they are in the stage of developing a plan.
“With IoT devices and equipment becoming such a fundamental part of the enterprise, companies continue to connect more devices to their networks, resulting in an increasing attack surface. This not only makes businesses more vulnerable to attacks, but also gives attackers new opportunities to breach security systems,” said Rodney Joffe, president of NISC and CTO of security at Neustar.
The research also showed that threats continue to increase according to recent measurements. The international Cyber Benchmarks index, which reflects the overall state of the cybersecurity landscape, has followed a steady upward trajectory since its inception, reaching a new record of 26.9 in September 2019.
The survey asked security professionals to rank a list of cyberthreats from highest concern to lowest concern. System breach was cited as the top concern by 22% of respondents, followed by DDoS attacks (21%) and ransomware (20%).
The social engineering via email was probably perceived as a growing threat (55% of respondents reported an increase in July / August 2019), followed by DDoS and ransomware attacks (and 54%) and phishing (53%).
