One in four companies (27 per cent) globally has suffered a data breach costing US$1 to $20 million or more in the past three years, according to PwC’s annual Global Digital Trust Insights Survey, which surveys more than 3500 senior executives across 65 countries.
It noted the percentage rose to one in three (34 per cent) for companies surveyed in North America, with only 14 per cent of firms globally reporting that no data breaches occurred during the period.
According to the survey, despite cyber attacks continuing to cost businesses millions of dollars, fewer than 40 per cent of executives surveyed said they fully mitigated cybersecurity risk exposure in a number of critical areas.
This included enabling remote and hybrid work (38 per cent said the cyber risk is fully mitigated); accelerated cloud adoption (35 per cent); increased use of internet of things (34 per cent); increased digitisation of supply chain (32 per cent) and back office operations (31 per cent).
The survey also found that for operations-focused executives, supply chain security was a major concern.
Nine in ten expressed concern about their organisation’s ability to withstand a cyber attack that disrupts their supply chain, with 56 per cent extremely or very concerned.
Bruce Scott, Cyber Leader, PwC Caribbean said, “A catastrophic cyber attack is the top scenario in 2023 resilience plans. It ranks higher than global recession, a new health crisis or inflationary environment.
As cyber threats continue to increase in frequency and sophistication, a holistic approach to cybersecurity has become a top priority for the C-suite and boards.”
To improve cyber resilience and build public trust, it’s clear a higher level of public-private collaboration is needed to address the increasingly complex cyber threat landscape, PwC also noted, adding that companies are calling for increased information sharing and transparency as well as a consistent format for mandatory disclosure of cyber incidents.
Anthony Zamore, Cyber director, PwC Caribbean, said: “The good news is cyber has progressed on many fronts as CISOs and cyber teams rise to the challenge, and other C-suite executives join forces with them. While progress has been made, Zamore cautioned three things are needed to keep pace with digital transformation and help build public trust: A strategic risk management programme; continuity and contingency planning and clear, consistent external reporting.
It was also found the majority of executives surveyed said their organisations were continuing to increase their cyber budgets—69 per cent said the budget increased in 2022 and 65 per cent plan to spend more on cyber in 2023.
Increasing budgets reflect the fact that cybersecurity tops the agenda for resilience planning, the company added.
