My first Magazine Global Cyber Security Survey Shows Confidence Drop | Page 2

According to Tenable, the pace of change regarding cloud adoption and the technology’s
ubiquity has made it harder for security professionals to see what lives on their networks.
Without that critical information, it is difficult to accurately assess risk.

Respondents also cited problems related to older and well-used technology. Confidence in the
“security of web applications” dropped to 62 percent from last year’s 80 percent rating. Another
contributing factor may be the increased media attention surrounding cyber security incidents
over the past few years.

Geographical Differences

When the survey results were broken down geographically, India tallied the highest risk
assessment score, while Japan ranked last in that category, CSO Online reported. According to
Tenable strategist Cris Thomas, this discrepancy may be due to the percentage of companies in
each country that handle their own security.

For example, Indian companies outsource security at a much higher rate, which “gives them the
sense that they’re paying someone else to handle it, and they think they’re more secure.”
Japanese companies, by contrast, rarely outsource. These organizations are more knowledgeable
about their security issues because they handle them directly.

The survey is an interesting snapshot of the security perception situation, but don’t use it to
predict long-term trends just yet. We’ll have to wait until it has been around for at least two
years to note any major trends.