Carlsbad, CA — January 4, 2016 — Proficio, an award-winning provider of cloud-based security services, announced today the results of its 2016 Cybersecurity Survey. Indicating another challenging year, less than half of the IT security professionals surveyed said they are satisfied that they have the technology, processes, and expertise to prevent a damaging cyber attack in 2016.
The Most Concerning Threats
When asked what is most likely to keep them up at night, IT security professionals highlighted insider threats, unpatched vulnerabilities and next-generation malware. While brute force attacks and DDoS attacks are still a concern, they are significantly less worrying to the respondents. In 2013, Proficio did a similar survey and notable trends are increased concerns over mobile device security and spear phishing attacks.
Who is Going to Attack and When?
The survey gained insight into what type of attackers will be the biggest threat and at what times organizations are most likely to be attacked. Not surprisingly, respondents fear attacks from cybercriminals most, followed closely by concerns about attacks from Insiders/employees and state sponsored hackers.
Given many organizations only staff their security operations functions during business hours, it was revealing to find that only 16% of respondents thought security incidents happened during business hours, underscoring the need for 24×7 security monitoring.
Trend to Outsourcing
The survey showed that a range of security tasks and operations are being outsourced including penetration testing (63%) and 24×7 security event monitoring and alerting (28%). When asked if outsourcing will increase or stay the same, 15% of respondents said they plan to outsource more security tasks in 2016.
“It is clear that IT security professionals understand the need to have good security practices in place to combat both internal and external threats to their organizations,” said Brad Taylor, CEO, Proficio. “But IT departments often find it challenging to monitor and prioritize security events, or they lack resources to quickly respond to critical alerts they receive. At Proficio, we act as an extension to our customers’ IT security teams and provide the most advanced threat detection and breach prevention services to keep them safe 24×7.”
For a copy of the full report, please contact info@proficio.com. The survey was conducted during December, 2015 and received responses from over 150 security professionals in the manufacturing, healthcare, finance, retail, energy, and other industries.
About Proficio
Proficio is an award winning provider of cloud-based security and compliance solutions, and is changing the way organizations defend against advanced threats and prevent security breaches. Proficio’s ProSOC service provides 24×7 security monitoring and alerting and advanced threat detection. Proficio protects the networks, data, and applications of some of the world’s leading utility, healthcare, industrial and consumer-focused organizations. For more information, visit proficio.com.
