Cybersecurity as a Business Issue
It’s become a cliché in the industry to say that cybersecurity has become a board room-level issue but what evidence do we have to support this claim? Well, here are a few tidbits from some recent ESG research that certainly lend credibility to the business-driven cybersecurity thesis (note: I am an ESG employee):
- When asked to identify business initiatives that are driving IT spending, 43% of respondents said, “increasing cybersecurity.” This was the top business initiative selected followed by “reducing costs” (38%), “improving data analytics for real-time business intelligence” (32%), and “ensuring regulatory compliance” (27%).
- On a similar vein, survey respondents were asked to identify the most important IT “meta-trend” to their organization. Forty-two percent of respondents selected, “increasing cybersecurity.” The next most popular response, “using data analytics for real-time business intelligence,” came in at 17%.
- 69% of organizations are increasing their spending on cybersecurity in 2016. These budget increases are being approved by business managers who are now willing to spend more money to improve cybersecurity at their organizations.
As if the ESG data wasn’t enough, we also know that cyber-insurance policies grew by about 35% last year. So aside from increasing cybersecurity budgets, business executives are hedging their bets by transferring risk to third-parties.
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