Focused cyber attacks per organisation double in one year: Report

Globally, organisations face as many as 30 cyber security breaches per year, indicating the need for more investment in innovative technologies to improve cyber resilience, says a report.

According to a new study by Accenture, the average number of focused cyber attacks per organisation has more than doubled this year, compared to the previous 12 months.

For the 2018 State of Cyber Resilience study, Accenture surveyed 4,600 enterprise security practitioners representing companies with annual revenues of USD 1 billion or more in 15 countries.

There were 232 cyberattacks through January 2018 as against 106 through January 2017, the report said, adding that organisations across the globe are upping their game and now preventing 87 per cent of all focused attacks compared to 70 per cent in 2017.

However, with 13 per cent of focused attacks being successful, organisations are still facing an average of 30 successful security breaches per year globally, which cause damage or result in the loss of high-value assets.

Despite making significant progress, only two out of five organisations are currently investing in breakthrough technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, indicating there is even more ground to be gained by increasing investment in cyber resilient solutions.

Organisations are, however, realising the benefits derived from investing in emerging technologies.

A large majority of respondents (83 per cent) agreed that new technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine or deep learning, user behaviour analytics and blockchain are essential to securing the future of organisations.

"While the findings of this study demonstrate that organisations are performing better at mitigating the impact of cyberattacks, they still have more work to do," said Kelly Bissell, managing director of Accenture Security.