IT Managers Are Struggling To Keep Up With Cyber Attacks

Parvati Misra - Sep 17, 2019

IT managers are inundated with cyber attacks as they struggle to keep up due to a lack of security expertise, budget, and up-to-date technology.

According to a recent survey of Global Sophos Survey, IT managers in India are facing a deluge of cyber-attacks from all directions due to severe budget crunch, lack of expertise and advanced technology. Phishing emails had impacted on 53 percent of those hit by a cyber attack.

The survey polled 3,100 IT decision-makers from organizations with 100 to 5000 employees in 12 countries across the globe, including India.

IT-companies — The survey polled 3,100 IT decision-makers from organizations with 100 to 5000 employees.

As stated by Suil Sarma, managing director sales of Sophos India, the survey showed that cybercriminals are deploying multiple channels and using different payloads to maximize impacts. The initial cause of 23 percent of the issues was software exploits, another 35 percent also pointed to software exploits, meaning that software vulnerabilities are exploited at multiple phases of the cyber-attack chain.

Firms which are only concentrating on patching external vulnerabilities facing higher risks from left vulnerable internally. And cybercriminals are exploiting this and other security breaches, he also added.

These wide-ranging methods of today's attacks are proving to be effective. While 54 percent of enterprises were hit by phishing emails, 48 percent said they were victims to data breach and 39% were attacked by ransomware.

According to responses, half of all IT managers considered insider risks, software exploits, and an unknown computer security vulnerability as top vulnerable security cyber risks. Zero day flaw means software vulnerability that is unknown by those who build or patch software; while 43% considered phishing mail as security risk.

The survey also reports that organizations should have security solution that could help them eliminate gaps and detect unseen threats by sharing data in real-time and automatically responding to issues. Having a security system also helps alleviate the skills gap that IT managers are facing. It’s much more time-saving and effective for enterprises to improve their security by using simple tools that coordinate with each other.