Business leaders have their eyes on cybersecurity in 2022.
Travelers Companies released their 2022 Risk Index results on September 26, which lists the top concerns for businesses.
According to a survey of more than 1,000 US business decision makers, nearly 60% of respondents said they are somewhat or very concerned about cyber threats.
Risks of broader economic instability, fluctuations in oil and energy costs, the ability to attract and retain talent, and medical cost inflation are among other major concerns.
“It is imperative that companies plan to prevent any related operational and financial disruptions.”
Tim Francis of Travellers
“A cyberattack can shut a company down or even put it out of business for a long time,” said Tim Francis, head of cyber at Travelers Enterprise.
The number of respondents who say their organization has experienced a data breach or cyber incident has increased for the seventh year in a row.
According to the survey, 26 percent of respondents said their organization had been a cyber victim, with nearly half of these incidents occurring in the past 12 months.
“Proven effective measures are available to reduce the risk of becoming a cyber victim, but based on the results of these surveys, not enough companies are taking action,” said Francis.
Cyber security measures
Researchers are expressing concern about companies’ overconfidence in navigating the cyber landscape.
More than 90% of respondents said they were confident their company had implemented best practices to address a cyber incident, but responses to follow-up questions did not support that statement.
According to researchers, 64% of companies do not use endpoint detection, 59% have not conducted a cyber assessment for suppliers, and 53% do not have a disaster response plan.
“It’s never too late, and these steps will help businesses avoid a devastating cyber incident,” Francis said.
Multi-factor authentication, which adds a layer of protection to the login process, is a system few companies have adopted in recent years.
Microsoft claims that 99.9% of identity theft attacks are blocked by adding MFA to authenticate computers.
Still, only 52% of respondents said they implemented MFA for remote access, even though 90% believed leaders were familiar with the security measure.
