One six-market survey on cybersecurity challenges sheds light on the multi-faceted economic socio-economic and perceptual considerations as well

Through a survey (March to May 2024) of around 1,200 IT and security professionals* who were working in firms with 1,000 or more employees in seven markets^ on the topic of cybersecurity and cloud security, some findings from the data were disclosed.

First, 96% of all respondents agreed to the prompt that generative AI (GenAI) is a threat to cybersecurity, with 36% stating its use for manipulating or the creation of deceptive content (deepfakes) “is a significant threat”. Also, 74% of respondents cited believing that colleagues in their department could spot deepfakes.

Second, 57% indicated having experienced a data breach or data leak in the last 12 months, up 6% from the previous year in a similar survey. UK respondents experienced the most data breaches or leaks followed by Germany at 61%. Singapore experienced the least at 33% (24% below the average).

Other findings

Third, 37% ranked Identity Access Management (IAM) and 38% ranked compliance as the top cloud challenges in managing cloud environments: At 36%, shadow IT came in third overall, followed by risk of cloud misconfiguration at 34%. Additionally, when asked how risk is monitored across cloud infrastructure, 44.6% of overall respondents indicated they conducted regular audits and assessments. Also:

  • Some 74% of respondents agreed to the prompt that phishing/social engineering incidents had increased in sophistication. Ranked from the top, the most serious threats were indicated as phishing/social engineering (32%), software vulnerabilities and/or zero-days (32%); GenAI’s influence on cyber threats (29%) and ransomware (29%); and insider threats (28%). GenAI was viewed by respondents as the top threat in France (35.5%), the US (34.4%) and Germany (32.8%).
  • Over a third of respondents cited “24×7 security coverage” as the number one reason for using managed detection and response services, followed “access to high-level security analysts” (29%) and “ability to proactively threat hunt” (29%).
  • 93% of respondents cited plans to increase investments in proactive cybersecurity measures, and 37% indicated “very likely” increases in these investments.
  • 28% cited “adhering to data compliance and regulations” as the number one challenge in their current security solutions. Extending capabilities across multiple environments was second (27.5%), followed by incompatibility with other security solutions (25%).

According to Andrei Florescu, President and General Manager, Bitdefender Business Solutions Group, the firm that commissioned the survey: “The goal of effective cybersecurity is not only stopping attacks at the door, but also to lower risk and optimize resources (technology and people) to help relieve pressure from security teams.” 

*in roles ranging from manager to chief information security officer (CISO)

^France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, the United Kingdom (UK) and the US: the numbers of respondents were geographically split equall