Splunk Report shows Increase in Data Breaches and Outages Due To Cybersecurity Incidents

Splunk has released the State of Security 2023, an annual global research report that examines the security issues facing the modern enterprise. More than 1,500 security leaders participated in the survey, revealing they’ve continued to see an increase in cyberattacks and unplanned outages.

According to the report, over half (52%) of organisations say they have suffered a data breach in the past two years, an increase from 49% in 2022 earlier and 39% in 2021. In addition, 62% of respondents report that their business-critical applications have suffered from unplanned downtime due to a cybersecurity incident on at least a monthly basis, an increase from 54% in 2022.

Key findings from the report include:

●       Bad actors are going unnoticed on corporate networks for extended periods of time. On average respondents report over two months (2.24) go by from when a bad actor gains access to when appropriate parties are aware of it.

●       The mean number of outages an organisation faces  is ~22 per year. The cost of this downtime consumes roughly 2.7% of annual revenue. According to Splunk’s recent Resilience Pays Off global research report, this downtime can cost organisations roughly $365,000 per hour.

●       Security incidents are an existential threat. Over a third (39%) of the respondents say cybersecurity incidents have directly harmed their competitive position. In addition, 31% say cybersecurity incidents have reduced shareholder value.

While enterprises face major cybersecurity obstacles, many organisations are taking steps to address these challenges: 
 

●       Security teams are spending more. 95% of the respondents say their security budgets will increase over the next two years, with 56% saying their budgets are increasing “significantly.”

●       Cybersecurity is a team sport. 81% of organisations say they are converging aspects of their security and IT operations together. Respondents believe that this convergence will help with the overall visibility of risks in their environment (58%) and that they will see improved cooperation in threat identification and response processes (55%). 

●       Organisations focus on protecting their supply chain. 95% of respondents say they have increased their focus on third-party risk assessments.

●       Data is the answer. 91% of respondents agree that better capture and analysis of detection data is one of the most effective tools to prevent successful ransomware attacks.

Key highlights from India include:

●       Indian organisations are well-resourced but are scrambling to keep up. 42% of Indian organisations report being overwhelmed by the number of attacks versus 23% in the rest of the world.

●       Part of the problem seems to be the complexity of their tool ecosystems. 48% say their security stack is too complex, compared to 28% in the rest of the world.

●       Respondents in India more often report having been breached in the last two years. 59% versus 45% of respondents elsewhere in the broad Asia-Pacific region.

○       These incidents are causing negative business outcomes at higher rates, including reduced company valuation (42% versus 25% in the rest of the region).

●       CISOs are rising to the challenge. 33% report briefing line-of-business leaders on the organisation’s security posture weekly versus 16% across the rest of Asia-Pacific.

○       The efforts are paying off, with 57% of respondents saying this has directly led to greater prioritisation of security investments versus 42% in the rest of the region.

“In the organisations we’ve worked with, resilience has been strongest with a collaborative approach in everything, from software development and infrastructure monitoring to business continuity planning,” said Ryan Kovar, Distinguished Security Strategist for Splunk  and Leader of SURGe. “This approach brings everyone to the table, including security leaders with IT and business leaders, so they all can focus on protecting the organisation.”

The global survey was conducted from mid-November 2022 through early January 2023 and in partnership with the Enterprise Strategy Group. The 1,520 respondents, IT and security leaders and practitioners who spend more than half their time on security issues, were drawn from ten regions: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.