61 Percent of Business Leaders Think Hackers Are Winning War Against Cybercrime, But Many are Ignoring Problem: RSM Survey

Six in 10 business leaders believe that in the war against cybercrime, hackers are more sophisticated than software developers, according to a new RSM cybersecurity survey. The pan-European survey of board members at nearly 600 successful businesses by the European Business Awards also revealed that 73% consider themselves at risk from cybercrime and only 31% believe their security strategy will protect them from a cyberattack.

The Cyber Security study, which was conducted for RSM by the European Business Awards, also revealed a gap in efforts to tackle the threat; with 21% of businesses having no cyber security plan in place at all.

"When it comes to cybersecurity, the lack of confidence from businesses is understandable because the reality today is that the threats are greater than protection, the hacker is always two steps ahead,” Gregor Strobl, Head of Technology and Cyber Risk Assurance at RSM Germany said. "Not only are there more hackers, but we have seen a move towards syndicates where criminal organisations across the globe are joining forces, often working together via the dark web quite often geopolitically, making the threat stronger.”

Nevertheless, business leaders do not have the luxury of taking a wait-and-see attitude. “It is very worrying that one in five European businesses have no coordinated way of tackling cybercrime,” Strobl said. “Investing in controls to prevent, detect, contain and build reliance can be the difference between a controlled response with little impact, or a public scandal with significant financial loss."

The research also investigated attitudes to cybersecurity in companies and found a significant gap in the engagement of senior management to the business threat.

Cybersecurity is currently only rarely or just occasionally discussed at board level in 54% of businesses leading 65% of business responders to say it needs to be discussed more at senior management level. However, one in three (33%) of the senior board members surveyed thought cyber security did not need further discussion.

There was also a mixed view on who is ultimately responsible for the businesses' security, with only 31% of businesses thinking the responsibility for tackling cybercrime sits with the CEO and 20% saying it is the IT Manager's job.

"Cyber risk management needs to be owned at board level. All too often senior management don't see the need for investment in cybersecurity, holding on to the dangerous belief that since they have yet to experience a breach -- as far as they are aware -- it won't ever happen.”

"This is a particular problem for small companies with limited budgets where there is no CIO or IT Director in place and the CEO has a limited knowledge of cybercrime,” Strobl said."This will change as the numbers of breaches and public fines increase, but we are actively encouraging senior executives to understand the risks associated with cybercrime, how it affects the organizations they're responsible for, and advising where specialist support is required to protect the business against cyberthreats".

The RSM Cyber Study conducted by the European Business Awards (EBA) was undertaken by 597 businesses from 33 countries in the EBA community who are currently going through digital transformation and adopting new technologies. 56% responders of the survey were senior leaders on the board of their business with a further 31% reporting directly to the board.

(For more information, visit www.rsm.global).