Accenture study on cyber-attacks

Accenture study on cyber attacks
The number of focused cyber-attacks per organization has more than doubled this year compared to the previous 12 months (232 through January 2018 versus 106 through January 2017), according to a study by Accenture.

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Only two out of five organizations are currently investing in breakthrough technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

Accenture conducted the study from January to mid-March 2018 and investigated focused attacks defined as having the potential to both penetrate network defenses and cause damage, or extract high-value assets and processes from within organizations.

Despite the increased pressure of ransomware attacks, which more than doubled in frequency last year, the study found organizations are upping their game and now preventing 87 percent of all focused attacks compared to 70 percent in 2017.

However, with 13 percent of focused attacks penetrating defenses, organizations are still facing an average of 30 successful security breaches per year which cause damage or result in the loss of high-value assets.

One in eight focused cyber-attacks are getting through versus one in three last year, indicating that organizations are doing a better job of preventing data from being hacked, stolen or leaked.

“Building investment capacity for wise security investments must be a priority for those organizations who want to close the gap on successful attacks even further,” said Kelly Bissell, managing director of Accenture Security.

89 percent of respondents said their internal security teams detected breaches within one month compared to 32 percent of teams last year. This year, 55 percent of organizations took one week or less to detect a breach compared to 10 percent last year.

Although companies are detecting breaches faster, security teams are still only finding 64 percent of them, which is similar to last year.

Respondents said that 38 percent found the security issues by white-hat hackers or through a peer or competitor (up from 15 percent, comparatively, in 2017). Law enforcement found 15 percent of undetected breaches, which is down from 32 percent the previous year.

Respondents said 67 percent of their organization is actively protected by their cyber security program.

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