News

Kyndryl/AWS Cybersecurity Survey: Big Orgs Hit Hard

• By David Ramel
• 11/12/2024

Large organizations are getting hit hard by cybersecurity attacks, with more than half of respondents to a new survey reporting at least one such incident in the past year.

That survey was a joint effort between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Kyndryl, the infrastructure services company formed as a 2021 spinoff from IBM.

"Along with AWS, Kyndryl surveyed IT decision-makers from more than 600 large enterprises across seven industries and 12 countries to understand their preparedness for fast-changing cybersecurity threats," Kyndryl said.

Titled "Cyber Gauge 2024: Navigating the complex cybersecurity landscape," key findings as presented in a news release include:

• Evolving threat landscape: 52% of IT leaders are grappling with operational challenges like preparing for emerging threats such as nation-state and generative artificial intelligence (AI) attacks. Securing hybrid cloud environments (47%) and managing the complexity of operating multiple security solutions (42%) were also top concerns.
• High frequency of attacks: Over the last year, 54% of large organizations reported experiencing a cyberattack that disrupted IT systems or data. Of those, 61% faced four or more attacks, with Germany (71%), Canada (60%) and India (56%) as the top three most affected countries.
• Inadequate executive support: A significant 69% report a lack of support from business leaders for necessary security measures. Even greater, 73% indicated board-level disinterest in security readiness.
• Lack of alignment in regulatory preparedness: Despite 94% confidence in handling changing regulatory dynamics as regulatory pressures continue to increase on organizations to improve overall cyber resilience, 77% struggle with security and other risk-mitigating team alignment, and 72% lack clear business continuity roadmaps.
• Organizational constraints: 54% of organizations noted that remote work continues to strain their security teams, while cybersecurity budget restrictions (43%) and security skills shortages (43%) were also top challenges.
• Industry-specific challenges: Retail (61%), manufacturing (57%), and chemicals, oil, and gas (56%) sectors reported the highest incidence of cyberattacks. Government organizations experienced the highest frequency, with 74% reporting four or more attacks.

"Despite 94% of organizations feeling prepared to mitigate cyberattacks, 71% believe they are likely to experience a disruptive incident within the next year that will impact their financial performance," Kyndryl said. "This disconnect highlights the need for improved awareness and enhanced measures to handle sophisticated cyber threats."