More than half of organizations (52%) consider phishing attacks or ID and credential theft as the top concern in Q3 2020, according to data released today by Pulse Secure (acquired by Ivanti), the leading provider of Zero Trust Secure Access solutions, and CyberRisk Alliance, a business intelligence company. Additionally, more than one-third of respondents (38%) across all regions experienced unauthorized or improper resource, application or data access, with North American organizations (39%) significantly more likely than Europeans (26%) to have encountered related data exfiltration, anomalous or malicious traffic.
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The Cybersecurity Resource Allocation and Efficacy (CRAE) Index, created by CyberRisk Alliance (CRA) and underwritten by Pulse Secure, is a quarterly, time-series tracker that measures the overall focus and direction of North American and European organizations’ cybersecurity activities, spending, and perceived progress over time. Scores above 50 indicate a spending or efficacy increase and scores below 50 show a spending or efficacy decrease.
Compared to the previous quarter, overall resource allocation and spending on IT security rose (66.5 in Q2 compared to 66.7 in Q3). In contrast, overall efficacy dropped (75.8 in Q2 compared to 74.2 in Q3), indicating that the increased expenditure did not result in a higher perception of improved security results. In North America, spending remained flat between Q2 and Q3 (66.5), but with a greater allocation towards reactive versus proactive security allocation. In contrast, the European CRAE Index showed an increase in quarterly spending and allocation (68.4 in Q3 compared to 66.5 in Q2) that focused on more proactive measures, with a similar reduction in efficacy (dipping to 74.4 Q3 from 74.9 Q2). The score was higher (by 1.9 points) for Europe than for North America, possibly propelled by organizations advancing the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) safeguards.
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Healthcare Experienced Strong Growth for Cybersecurity Resource and Spending Allocations Globally
Healthcare resource allocation and spending growth accelerated in Q3 by 5.8 points to an index score of 69.6 points. The expansion was driven by protection measures, which jumped 8.7 points to an index score of 75.2, including cybersecurity training and awareness programs, developing processes to secure digital and physical assets, and purchasing or implementing cybersecurity technology. Additionally, the “Protecting” Efficacy Index rose by 7.6 points to 80.6, mostly driven by related protection efficacy, where healthcare organizations shared increased confidence in the effectiveness of their resource and investment allocations since Q2.
Healthcare industry respondents highlighted budgetary constraints, a trend continuing from Q2, as their primary challenge to combat rising threats and address elevated risks from untrained staff and employee carelessness with highly sensitive data. In terms of cybersecurity challenges over the last quarter, phishing and identity/credential theft were most impactful for healthcare respondents (54%), with external compliance and audit events (33%), and endpoint malware and IoT security issues (32%) rounding out the top three.