Gartner: Less than two thirds of businesses have a cybersecurity expert

Having surveyed more than 3,000 global CIO’s across a range of leading industries, Gartner has found that less than two thirds of companies have a cybersecurity expert, despite 95% expecting cyberthreats to rise during the next three years.

As technology evolves, so do cyberattacks, making it increasingly difficult for businesses to anticipate how they will next be targeted. With this in mind, a lack of expertise and/ or defensive may leave businesses increasingly vulnerable to cybercrime.

See also:

• The cyber risk gap

• 97% of risk pros believe unsecured IoT could facilitate cyber attacks

• Capgemini: 46% of firms are refraining from innovating due to cybersecurity fears

“In a twisted way, many cybercriminals are digital pioneers, finding ways to leverage big data and web-scale techniques to stage attacks and steal data,” said Rob McMillan, Research Director at Gartner.

“CIOs can't protect their organizations from everything, so they need to create a sustainable set of controls that balances their need to protect their business with their need to run it.”

Further, the report states that skills shortages and the growing cyber talent gap are set to continue to inhibit global progress in digitalisation and innovation.

“Cybersecurity is faced with a well-documented skills shortage, which is considered a top inhibitor to innovation,” McMillan continues. “Finding talented, driven people to handle the organization's cybersecurity responsibilities is an endless function.”

As a result, Gartner recommends that Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) take it upon themselves to diversify the skill sets of their security teams, enhancing their individual capabilities in order to reduce this growing skills gap.

According to Gartner, 60% of security budgets will be in support of detection and response capabilities by 2020 as businesses learn to recognise the need to combat the rising levels and complexity of cybercrime.