As organizations increasingly shift towards cloud services, and digital transformation continues to accelerate, the risks of cyberattacks grow higher. Most IT leaders recognize that securing their networks and applications is crucial for their bottom line. According to PwC's Digital Trust Insights survey, UK senior executives believe that cloud security will have a significant impact on their organizations in 2023.
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In comparison to 2022, 39% of UK senior executives expect cloud-based threats to affect their organization significantly. Among them, 33% are anticipating an increase in attacks against cloud management interfaces, while 20% predict an increase in attacks on IIoT and operational technology. Additionally, some long-standing cyber threats like business email compromise and 'hаck & leak' attacks, as well as ransomware incidents, are foreseen to escalate substantially in 2023.
Amidst digital transformation efforts, cyberattacks are believed to pose the most significant organizational risk in 2023. Two-thirds of UK senior executives report not having fully mitigated cyber risks associated with digital transformation, which could have devastating repercussions for organizational resilience. As per the survey, 48% of UK organizations are prioritizing preparing for catastrophic cyberattacks above all else in 2023.
Despite increased awareness of cyber threats, more work is required to make sure organizations are safe from them. As per the survey, 43% of UK senior executives focus on only one type of risk and how to recover from it. A more effective approach is needed, including understanding all the different types of risks the organization faces and how to continue operations across all of them simultaneously.
Half of UK senior executives wait for a problem to happen before making a plan to deal with it, instead of preventing or being prepared for it. While 47% of executives say they have a formal way to coordinate their resiliency plan, including responding to an incident and collecting threat information.
Digital transformation presents new opportunities, but it also brings new risks. With the increasing number of cyber threats, organizations need to be proactive in their cybersecurity efforts and continuously adapt to the evolving threat landscape to ensure organizational resilience.
The successful mitigation of cyber threats in 2023 relies on three critical factors.
Firstly, strong leadership is essential for achieving improved cybersecurity outcomes in the next year and a half. UK senior executives believe that the top-level leadership must demonstrate its commitment to cybersecurity measures through effective communication and removing any barriers that obstruct cohesive C-Suite coordination between stakeholders.
Secondly, senior executives emphasize the importance of data analytics in cybersecurity transformation. Data analytics can be used to optimize threat detection, identify risks, and enable more strategic decisions that consider business goals and potential threats. Advanced Analytics coupled with AI can play an instrumental role in protecting organizations from cyber-attacks by optimizing investments in cybersecurity initiatives.
Finally, promoting cybersecurity awareness among employees is crucial to enable secure digital transformation and promote innovation. Nearly half of UK business leaders are planning to increase human-led capabilities while 40% plan on increasing their use of technological solutions. Moreover, executives agree that successful cybersecurity transformations depend upon educating all employees regarding potential risks they may introduce unknowingly. It is also essential to diversify talent pools beyond certifications or tech degrees.
In conclusion, it is vital to address these three critical factors to mitigate cyber threats successfully in 2023. Strong leadership, data analytics capabilities, and cybersecurity awareness among employees are all necessary to ensure the security and resilience of organizations in the face of an increasingly complex cyber threat landscape.
Businesses are increasingly concerned about the need to protect their IT infrastructure from vulnerabilities, viruses, and successful hacker attacks. Many companies hesitate to switch to cloud computing for fear of data safety. Securing the cloud infrastructure is also costly, due to the high cost of information security equipment.
However, hosting infrastructure in a public cloud offers a great opportunity to get an unlimited amount of resources while optimizing costs. Ensuring the security of the cloud infrastructure is essential for any company. The cybersecurity market is expected to be one of the most dynamically developing markets in the coming years.
Implementing information security requires companies to be guided by both legislation and common sense. As more and more data is hosted in the cloud, companies accumulate information that may result in new potential risks to data privacy and security. Cloud computing has the potential to enhance intersectoral development, but it also creates new challenges for data security.
Protecting information when hosted in the cloud requires work from both the cloud provider and the client. The information security department in the company is responsible for ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. However, when hosted in the cloud, securing the infrastructure becomes more complicated, as part of it is transferred to the responsibility of the cloud provider.
The hardware and software platform that ensures the functioning of the public cloud consists of a number of subsystems. Hence, it is essential for companies to seek help from an IT company to design an information security system, implement it, and provide continuous support. Companies must ensure that they have both top-level data protection from the cloud provider and point protection from themselves.
In conclusion, ensuring the protection of the cloud infrastructure is a shared responsibility between the cloud provider and the client. Companies must be proactive in implementing information security and seek appropriate help if needed. The potential benefits of cloud computing can only be fully realized if organizations take steps to secure their data in the cloud.