One in three business uses ‘out-dated cybersecurity tools’

Almost one-third of businesses use “out-dated cybersecurity tools to address next-generation threats”, according to a new report by research company .

The study, conducted by Cyber adAPT, says 31 per cent of businesses “depend solely on out-dated tools” for their cybersecurity requirements. The report, Business has a crucial need for continuous threat visibility and cyber security management services, surveyed more than 6,000 senior business respondents, and conducted many in-depth interviews with CISOs.

The findings also indicate that cybersecurity spending is increasing at a rate of between 9-12 per cent each year, says . Meanwhile, says , the volume of cyber attacks continue to “skyrocket”, with data breach incidents increasing by 40 per cent.

On the positive side, says , almost two-thirds of business cyber security teams are switching to “a more evolved, analytical approach to defense”.

These new approaches include advanced security information and event management, next-generation artificial intelligence, machine learning, and network analytics. Kirsten Bay, CEO of Cyber adAPT, says: “New generation technologies offer an exciting future for the cybersecurity industry.

“Many CISOs are struggling to persuade their boards to invest in new solutions, having failed to demonstrate the returns delivered by outdated tools – in fact, almost 60 per cent of respondents thought they received poor value from their existing investments.”

For business which are not yet utilising next-generation analytics, 57 per cent of teams said they were not ready as the tools would be too difficult to integrate based on the internal skills and resources they draw upon.

Bay adds: “A platform approach, bolstered by AI and machine learning is set to offer real returns for cybersecurity customers. “Technology will no longer rely on human input to detect threats and will prioritize alerts to streamline the CISOs workload, reducing the amount of time a threat is active inside a network.”

Some 50 per cent of organisations highlighted false positives as something they could not afford to waste time dealing with. Approximately 80 per cent of CISOs stated they were prepared to work with managed security services providers, which are said to deliver prioritised threat data offering the potential to save time.

The report predicts the managed security services sector will account for more than 20 per cent of total security market share by 2020. Andrew Kellett, principal analyst, infrastructure solutions at , says: “With an evolving threat landscape, CISOs are battling to equip organizations to improve security and data protection.

“The lack of available resources within internal teams creates a vulnerability that technology must address. “Prioritizing risk must be the focus to ensure effective returns on cyber-security investment and safeguard network infrastructures.”