infographic prevalent , we must empower defenders to detect and stop attacks , as well as implement security stacks built for a cloud-first world .”
The Australian Security Insights Report provides intelligence on the cybersecurity landscape , attack and defence trends , along with the security priorities for organisations this year to maintain resilience . The key findings include :
• A lack of urgency despite surge in material breaches . 77 % of respondents have suffered a breach in the last 12 months with eight out of 10 breaches ( 79 %) considered material . Yet , security professionals have underestimated the likelihood of a material breach . Almost two-thirds ( 59 %) of Australian organisations say they fear a material breach in the next year , with the financial services and government sectors highly concerned , with 66 % and 65 % of respondents , respectively , saying they fear a breach . Over one-third ( 46 %) of organisations have updated their security policy and approach to mitigate the risk .
• Resurgence of ransomware and remote work creates unpredictable attack surface . 72 % of respondents said attack volumes had increased – with the majority pointing to employees working from home as the cause – and 80 % said attacks had become more sophisticated . The leading breach causes were ransomware ( 26 %), third-party apps ( 19 %), process weaknesses ( 18 %) and out-of-date security technology ( 16 %).
• Manufacturing sector hit hardest by cyberattacks . 66 % of respondents in the financial services sector experienced attack increases at an average of 27 %. A staggering 91 % of manufacturing sector respondents experienced attack increases at an above average 40 %. Respondents from the healthcare sector fared better than average , with 68 % reporting attack volume increases .
• Cloud-first security strategies are now universal . 98 % of respondents already use or plan to use a cloud-first security strategy . But the move to cloud has expanded the threat surface . 56 % of respondents agree they need to view security differently now that the attack surface has expanded and 46 % of respondents said they plan to build more security into their infrastructure and apps and reduce the number of point solutions . A cloud-first strategy is prevalent among government and financial services companies , where 92 % and 82 %, respectively , say they are cloud-first already .
• Applications and workloads are top CISO concerns . Applications and workloads are viewed as the most vulnerable points on the data journey . 57 % of respondents agree they need better visibility over data and apps in order to pre-empt attacks . 54 % of respondents also shared that their senior leadership team feel increasingly worried about bringing new applications to market because of the growing threat and damage of cyberattacks .
• Security concerns are holding back adoption of AI . The next frontier for business innovation may be Artificial Intelligence , but almost half of respondents ( 48 %) say that security concerns are holding them back from embracing AI and Machine Learning . u
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