New Rackspace Technology Survey of Global IT Leaders Reveals Lack of Confidence, Resources Within Their Organizations in Responding to Growing Array of Cyber Threats
October 20 2021 - 10:05AM
Half of global IT leaders say they are not “fully confident” in
their ability to respond to data, malware phishing, supply chain,
ransomware, cloud, IoT and application attacks, according to a new
global survey by Rackspace Technology® (NASDAQ: RXT), a leading
end-to-end, multicloud technology solutions company. Moreover, when
asked about their attack response capabilities, fewer than half
(45%) of respondents say they can effectively respond to incidents,
mitigate threats (43%), or understand the nature of the threats
they are facing (42%).
The survey of 1,420 IT professionals also reveals widespread
uncertainty that organizations possess the talent and skills to
meet cybersecurity challenges, with 86% of respondents saying their
organizations lack the necessary skills and expertise to respond to
a growing array of threats.
“Though most respondents to our survey say they are ‘prepared’
for cyber-attacks, there is a high degree of anxiety about their
ability to effectively confront adversaries who are increasingly
sophisticated,” said Jeff DeVerter, Chief Evangelist Rackspace
Technology. “Moreover, the expanding use of the cloud, IoT and
applications, as well as a tight talent market and an increase in
remote work – largely driven by the pandemic – have made the
security environment much more challenging. Few organizations
actually have the people, processes, and technologies that match a
modern cybersecurity model.”
IT Trends Driving Cyber Complexity
The ubiquity of the cloud, DevOps methodologies and the
condensing of development cycles, coupled with other IT trends,
have made addressing cyberthreats an increasingly complex task.
Half of the survey respondents (49%) cite the growth in cloud and
IoT as key challenges, followed by new threats and attack methods
(46%) and the growth in data volumes, digital operations, and
remote work (45%), which has resulted in increased opportunities
for attackers.
Forty-eight percent of respondents say their ability to manage
application security in a more complex environment is influenced by
new ways of working, including DevOps and Agile development
practices. Other dynamics include faster release/delivery cycles
(46%), the growth in microservice application architectures (46%),
hybrid/multicloud environments (46%) and container runtime
environments (44%).
When asked about the nature and targets of the cyberattacks they
are most concerned about, network/platform attacks (58%) lead the
way, followed by web application attacks (52%) and network
operating system attacks (51%). Half (50%) are concerned about
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), while 47% involve stolen
credentials and 41% are concerned about unauthorized exposure to
data.
Talent and Staffing Pain Points
More than half (52%) of survey respondents say they have
difficulty recruiting and retaining cybersecurity talent, with the
greatest skill gaps in the areas of cloud security (33%) and
network security (30%), which respondents also identified as their
most critical roles. Across the business, IT leaders cite lack of
expertise (86%), lack of resources (81%), lack of time (70%) and
lack of training information (63%) as their most pressing
cybersecurity and compliance challenges.
Cloud, data, app, network and identity access are most
frequently handled by in-house staff while nearly half (49%)
outsource integrated risk security and (43%) task external partners
to assist with network security.
“Organizations struggling with expertise, resources and time are
still reluctant about enlisting external help,” added DeVerter.
“Instead, our research shows that they are hoping that enlisting
recruiters and improving the training of internal staff will help
them solve the talent crunch.”
Click here to view How mature do IT
leaders think they are when it comes to cloud security
Survey of Global IT Leaders Infographic.
Survey MethodologyThe survey was conducted by
Coleman Parkes Research in September 2021. Findings are based on
the responses of 1,420 IT decision-makers across manufacturing,
retail, hospitality/travel, healthcare/pharma/biomedical,
government and financial services sectors in the Americas, Europe,
Asia and the Middle East. Most of the companies/organizations
polled were founded before the year 2000, have from 101 to 999
employees, and annual revenue between $50m and $1b. They also have
anywhere from two to 15 employees dedicated to cybersecurity and
they spend 5% to 15% of their IT budget on cybersecurity.
About Rackspace TechnologyRackspace Technology
is a leading end-to-end multicloud technology services company. We
can design, build and operate our customers’ cloud environments
across all major technology platforms, irrespective of technology
stack or deployment model. We partner with our customers at every
stage of their cloud journey, enabling them to modernize
applications, build new products and adopt innovative
technologies.
Contact: Natalie Silva Rackspace Technology
Corporate Communicationspublicrelations@rackspace.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
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