Intelligent CISO Issue 27 | Page 37

FEATURE New insights from the 2020 Thales Europe Data Threat Report reveal that European organisations have a false sense of security when it comes to protecting themselves, with only twothirds (68%) seeing themselves as vulnerable, down from nine in 10 (86%) in 2018. This confidence flies in the face of the findings of the survey of 509 European executives which reveals over half (52%) of organisations were breached or failed a compliance audit in 2019, raising concerns as to why a fifth (20%) intend to reduce data security spend in the next year. The findings come as workers across Europe are working from home due to COVID-19, often using personal devices that don’t have the built-in security office systems do, significantly increasing risk to sensitive data. Across the board, companies are racing to digitally transform and move more applications and data to the cloud; two-fifths (37%) of European countries stated they are aggressively disrupting the markets they participate in or embedding digital capabilities to enable greater enterprise agility. A key aspect of this transformation is in the cloud becoming the leading data environment. Nearly half (46%) of all data stored by European organisations is now stored in the cloud, and with 43% of that data in the cloud being described as sensitive, it is essential that it is kept safe. As more sensitive data is stored in cloud environments, however, data security John Beattie, Principal Consultant at Sungard Availability Services risks increase. This is of particular concern given that 100% of businesses surveyed report that at least some of the sensitive data they are storing in the cloud is not encrypted. Only 54% of sensitive data in the cloud is protected by encryption and even less (44%) is protected by tokenisation, highlighting the disconnect between the level of investment companies are making into cybersecurity and the increasing threats they face. John Beattie, Principal Consultant at Sungard Availability Services, tells us how companies can start off on the right foot when it comes to bolstering their cybersecurity posture and preventing data loss. The number of active cybersecurity firms in the UK has increased 44% from 2017, making the UK’s booming cybersecurity sector worth £8.3 billion. Cyberattacks are depicted in popular culture with scenes of utter panic. There’s feverish typing, a series of hectic phone calls and computer screens flashing or shutting off. They are, in fact, a reality for many businesses in the UK. The scenes of utter panic may be exaggerated on screen, but the impact on real-life organisations is scary. On the surface, post breach customer protection, cybersecurity improvements, regulatory fines and PR costs for reputation restoration are all tangible and quantifiable costly impacts of an attack. However, there are many more intangible costs, including value of lost potential contract revenue; devaluation of reputation and lost value of customer relationships which are harder to equate www.intelligentciso.com | Issue 27 37