PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tripwire, Inc., a leading global provider of advanced threat, security and compliance solutions, today announced the results of a study conducted by Dimensional Research on the cybersecurity literacy challenges faced by organizations. The study, carried out in May 2015, evaluated cybersecurity risk decision-making and communication between IT security professionals, executive teams and boards. Study respondents included 200 IT security professionals at U.S. companies with annual revenues of more than $5 billion, and 151 IT professionals from U.K. organizations with annual revenues over £500 million.
Key findings include:
- IT professionals in the U.K. (71 percent) were more likely to consider their corporate board to be cybersecurity literate than their U.S. counterparts (57 percent).
- 71 percent of the U.K. respondents said their company's corporate board had a member responsible for cybersecurity, only half (50 percent) of U.S. IT professionals said this was true for their organization.
- Nearly a third (32 percent) of U.S. respondents believed the information presented to the board did not accurately represent the urgency and intensity of the cyberthreats targeting their organization. Only 13 percent of U.K. IT professionals answered similarly.
“Cybersecurity is definitely a boardroom issue, and I’m encouraged that more organizations are engaging on this topic,” said Dwayne Melancon, chief technology officer for Tripwire. “However, engaging and doing so effectively are two different things.”
When asked which major security event had the biggest impact on their board’s cybersecurity awareness, 34 percent of U.K. respondents said an internal security breach at their organization. However, 74 percent of U.S. respondents said high-profile external breaches, such as Sony Pictures, Target and the Snowden leaks, had the most impact.
Melancon continued, “From my experience, I believe some of the respondents may be overly optimistic about the cybersecurity literacy of their boards, which could be a challenge. Fortunately, a good number of organizations recognize that their current approach to depicting cybersecurity status falls short of their goal of creating an appropriate sense of urgency within their executive ranks.”
For more information about the survey please visit: http://www.tripwire.com/company/research/us-uk-cybersecurity-literacy-comparison-survey
Additional resources:
White Paper: The Cyber Security Literacy Confidence Gap
Webcast: How To Improve Your Board's Cyber Security Literacy
Blog Post: Board Talk: How to Improve Your Board’s Cyber Security Literacy
Video: Improving Cybersecurity Literacy in Boards and Executives with Brian Engle
About Tripwire
Tripwire is a leading provider of advanced threat, security and compliance solutions that enable enterprises, service providers and government agencies to confidently detect, prevent and respond to cybersecurity threats. Tripwire solutions are based on high-fidelity asset visibility and deep endpoint intelligence combined with business-context and enable security automation through enterprise integration. Tripwire’s portfolio of enterprise-class security solutions includes configuration and policy management, file integrity monitoring, vulnerability management and log intelligence. Learn more at www.tripwire.com, get security news, trends and insights at http://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/ or follow us on Twitter @TripwireInc.
