Organizations in All Sectors Lack Tools and Teams to Address Cybersecurity Threats

The latest research from Blackberry, the Waterloo, Ontario-headquartered provider of security software and services, shows organizations across all industries are struggling with maintaining and improving their overall cybersecurity posture. However, extended detection and response (XDR) solutions may be able to help.

The survey of 405 senior IT, networking and security decision-makers in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. revealed 83% of organizations agreed building cybersecurity programs is expensive due to required tools, licenses and personnel; 80% agreed it’s challenging to fill specialized security roles. Most organizations (78%) have an incident management process, but half (49%) agree they lack the teams and tools to be effective 24/7/365. Evolving security threats (53%) and the task of integrating new technology (53%) are cited as top challenges in maintaining security posture.

“Strengthening cyber defenses and maintaining operation around-the-clock calls for businesses to make significant investments in sophisticated tools and highly skilled staff. Organizations often find their IT staff are stretched thin or not skilled enough to manage security technologies,” said Nathan Jenniges, vice president, cybersecurity product strategy at BlackBerry, in a statement. “With 24×7 monitoring and mitigation, Managed XDR could be the missing link, particularly for critical infrastructure organizations, which are greater targets for cyberattacks with potentially damaging results.”

Additional key findings from the survey include:

•  Cybersecurity Challenges for Healthcare and Energy Sectors
  • 77% of healthcare respondents and 72% of energy and utility respondents said the amount of work required to create their own dedicated security operations was daunting
  • Healthcare respondents were the least likely (63%) to agree they have an incident management process to handle threats
  • While 60% of energy and utility companies have a Security Operations Center (SOC) or equivalent in place, only 1 in 5 (20%) said they have the right skillsets to adopt XDR; as a result only 1 in 3 (33%) were confident in their ability to gain a strong return from XDR

• Use of IT/Cybersecurity Managed Services to Plug the Talent Gap
  • 80% of respondents use a managed service provider for at least some of their cybersecurity workloads
  • 45% say the ability to free up existing resources is the top anticipated benefit of leveraging managed IT/cybersecurity services
  • 42% report a better ability to address skills and resource gaps using managed services

• XDR Awareness and Adoption
  • 79% are likely to consider an XDR solution over the next 12 months; large enterprises and manufacturing organizations most likely to consider an XDR solution
  • 77% of those considering an XDR solution plan to outsource some or all XDR management
  • 51% who plan to outsource XDR management are extremely confident in their ability to gain a return from XDR, as opposed to 35% managing XDR themselves
  • Small businesses (53%) are most likely to be concerned about having the skills necessary to adopt XDR, compared to large enterprises (47%) and commercial businesses (41%)

Blackberry’s full report can be found here.

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