Just about all IT managers of large enterprises experienced a cyber breach in 2022

 

Palo Alto Networks research: Just about all IT managers of large enterprises experienced a cyber breach in 2022

Hybrid working is often the culprit

Virtually every European IT executive of a large enterprise has experienced a cyber breach in 2022 (95%), according to Palo Alto Networks’ recent What’s Next in Cyber Survey. For the survey, 1,300 executives worldwide (CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, CSOs and COOs), who manage the IT infrastructure of companies with revenues above USD 250 million, were surveyed about their security experiences in 2022.

Hybrid working

Large enterprises are putting plenty of effort into renewing their IT infrastructure, but often run into organisational challenges. Working from home is often unfortunately one of them. Most European IT managers (80%) say that cyber incidents have increased significantly due to hybrid working and unprotected devices.

Supply chain

When polled on the biggest cybersecurity threats for 2023, IT managers in Europe were found to be most frequently alarmed by supply chain attacks (20 %) and Business Email Compromise (14 %). In Business Email Compromise, a hacker takes over a company email and pretends to be an employee. The top three is completed by DDoS attacks (13 %). Distributed Denial of Service attacks are cyber attacks in which hackers send so many requests simultaneously that a website can no longer function normally.

20 suppliers

Striking finding from the survey: European IT managers of large enterprises report working with 20 different security vendors on average, and with as many as 91 (!) different security tools. One in three IT executives (35%) therefore say that managing the plethora of partners is a challenge for the organisation.

Raf Peeters, Country Director Belux at Palo Alto Networks, adds: “Cyber transformation is only possible when CIOs and CISOs free themselves from the current legacy architecture. They need to reinvent that infrastructure for the future – a future where the most complex threats are stopped in real time and at any scale. Only then can we stay one step ahead of resourceful cybercriminals.”

About the survey

The survey was commissioned by Palo Alto Networks and conducted in August 2022 by Wakefield Research among 1,300 executives worldwide who manage the IT infrastructure of companies with revenues above $250 million.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks is the world’s cybersecurity leader. We innovate to outpace cyberthreats, so organizations can embrace technology with confidence. We provide next-gen cybersecurity to thousands of customers globally, across all sectors. Our best-in-class cybersecurity platforms and services are backed by industry-leading threat intelligence and strengthened by state-of-the-art automation. Whether deploying our products to enable the Zero Trust Enterprise, responding to a security incident, or partnering to deliver better security outcomes through a world-class partner ecosystem, we’re committed to helping ensure each day is safer than the one before. It’s what makes us the cybersecurity partner of choice.