A survey conducted by the company between the 9th and 14th of August 2023 revealed that 55% of IT security decision-makers ranked data theft as their top concern among all IT security concerns they face. There is an interesting trend taking place in terms of ransomware, which has been a staple concern of ours, now slipping from first to third place (29%) behind phishing attacks (35%).
Based on the results of a survey conducted by the CIO Institute, which collated responses from 205 IT security decision-makers, it was discovered that advanced persistent threats (APTs) and targeted attacks were of greater concern to CIOs (30%) and CTOs (33%), than ransomware (28%, 33%).
As such, the majority of these APT attack methods are designed to achieve national-level objectives, such as the destruction of infrastructure or the conduct of espionage operations.
Based on the data, it appears that data theft is the second most commonly encountered cybersecurity incident within organizations, ranking at 27% of cases reported in the study.
With 46%, phishing is still at the top of the list when it comes to cybercrime. Therefore, it has become imperative to protect sensitive data, which is why nearly half of the professionals surveyed said they stayed up all night to do so (48%).