VMware recently released the Canadian findings of its 2021 Global Security Insights Report, which highlights how the cybersecurity threat landscape evolved in 2020 and how organizations in Canada plan to combat growing threats in 2021.
77% of Canadian respondents said attack volumes have increased in the past year, and of those 78% said attacks increased as a result of more employees working from home.
The report identifies key trends in hacking and malicious attacks and how Canadian businesses are adapting their security and infrastructure to deal with the challenges of a distributed workforce. Here are a few key data findings:
- A lack of urgency despite surge in material breaches. 86% of respondents have suffered a breach in the last twelve months with 8 out of 10 breaches (88%) considered material. Yet, security professionals have underestimated the likelihood of a material breach. Only 56% say they fear a material breach in the next year, and just one-third (31.5%) have updated their security policy and approach to mitigate the risk.
- Resurgence of ransomware and remote work creates unpredictable attack surface. 78% of respondents who had experienced cyberattacks said they had seen an increase in frequency due to more employees working from home.
- Security concerns are holding back adoption of AI. The next frontier for business innovation may be artificial intelligence, but more than half of respondents (64.5%) say that security concerns are holding them back from embracing AI/ML-based apps.
- Breach impact on reputation should command more urgency. 79% of those who suffered a cyberattack say there was some kind of negative impact on reputation – up from 47% in June 2020.
- Cloud-first security strategies are now universal. 95% of respondents already use or plan to use a cloud-first security strategy. But the move to cloud has expanded the threat surface. More than half (58%) agree they need to view security differently now that the attack surface has expanded. But only 34% of respondents plan to build more security into their infrastructure and apps and reduce the number of point solutions.
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