- The majority of organisations surveyed believe that the risk of cyber threats will increase in 2020– More than half (56 percent) of global respondents feel that the risk of cyber attacks will increase next year. The result in the UK was 52 percent with 45 percent in Germany and 50 percent in France.
- Half of global respondents (50 percent) are not covered by cyber insurance– The second highest level of respondents saying they had no cyber insurance were from Germany with almost two-thirds of respondents (60 percent). This compares to 32 percent of UK respondents and 43 percent in France who have no cyber insurance.
- Compliance fines are one of the smallest concerns for execs– Fines stemming from compliance regulations such as the GDPR was the second least chosen from a list of nine potential concerns. The survey found that 24 percent of global respondents identified these fines as a worry, with 39 percent in the UK, 22 percent in Germany and 19 percent in France. The loss of sensitive data was the biggest concern globally as well as in the three European countries that were surveyed.
- Lack of cybersecurity training remains an issue – Approximately one in five (21 percent) of German respondents lack any cyber security training program in their organisation. This is far higher than the global average (11 percent), France (1 percent) and UK (10 percent).
- About one in ten UK organisations (11 percent) say they don’t have any cyber attack or breach response plans– This was the third highest of all countries behind Canada (19 percent) and Japan (15 percent). Meanwhile, the German response was 5 percent and 2 percent in France saying they had no plans for a cyber attack or breach response. The average across all respondents globally was 8 percent.
- AI and blockchain adoption – Globally, 86% of respondents reported they had set up blockchain initiatives. However, some European organisations aren’t so quick to embrace the technology. Slightly more than one in five (21 percent) of German respondents say they have not researched blockchain and it’s not a priority. This compared to 10 percent in France and 14 percent in the UK. In each of the three countries, 40 percent of respondents said they had started an initiative to better understand AI and AI security.
“An interesting aspect of this new research is that it shines a light on the different attitudes that influence how individuals and organisations approach cybersecurity across the world,” said Eric Ouellet, Global Security Strategist at FireEye. “One attitude that emerged which people should reconsider is letting compliance dictate security standards when actually they should be aiming for a higher level of protection. For example, the report found that 29 percent of organisations had informal training programs on an ‘as needed’ basis that are focused on meeting core compliance requirements. It’s likely that the organisations which are taking a more comprehensive approach in this area and others are better equipped to deal with security threats.”
