Data from Deloitte’s Global Future of Cyber Survey 2024 indicates that the vast majority of organisations globally are prioritising efforts to strengthen cybersecurity, highlighting the growing link between the area and the results obtained by firms.
‘Specifically, 86% of the companies surveyed are implementing actions to improve cybersecurity to a moderate or high degree, reflecting a broad understanding of the importance of solid cybersecurity programmes to ensure their effectiveness. In addition, 85 per cent of respondents expect to achieve the desired business results as a result of increasing their cybersecurity activities. We can therefore conclude that the link between cybersecurity and the business value expected from companies is increasingly strong,’ explains the Deloitte press release on the study.
The document explains that the study was based on a survey of around 1,200 technology business leaders, at director level or above, from organisations in the Americas, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and APAC (Asia-Pacific) regions. Now in its fourth edition, the study analyses business decision-makers‘ perspectives on the evolution of the cybersecurity landscape and identifies companies’ strategic and operational priorities in this area.
At a global level, the note on the study reveals that organisations classified with high cyber maturity are, on average, 27 percentage points more likely to achieve their business objectives, compared to less mature organisations. The main benefits expected from cybersecurity initiatives include the protection of intellectual property, improved threat detection and response, and increased operational efficiency and agility.
‘The consequences of cybersecurity incidents continue to have a significant impact on organisations. This year, loss of confidence in technological integrity was identified as the main concern. Operational disruption emerged as the second biggest concern, followed by reputational losses, negative impact on talent retention and recruitment and, finally, loss of revenue,’ reads the statement.
According to Frederico Macias, a partner at Deloitte, ‘cybersecurity is currently an essential criterion for organisations to be perceived as trustworthy, which is why we need to redouble our efforts to reduce and mitigate the growing risk of a potential cyberattack. The globalisation of the economy requires greater preparation for this type of attack and regulation itself. From the conclusions of this study, we can see that organisations will continue to invest in prevention strategies, which in the long term could prevent crisis situations.’
With regard to threats, 42 per cent of respondents mention cybercriminals and terrorists as their main concerns. At the same time, organisations are increasingly turning to Artificial Intelligence in cybersecurity to help improve threat identification and response, with 39% of respondents using AI technologies in their programmes, and 34% very concerned about AI-related risks as part of their cybersecurity strategy.
‘To deal with these challenges, 57% of companies plan to increase their cybersecurity budgets over the next 12 to 24 months and 58% expect to integrate cybersecurity costs into the budgets of other strategic programmes, such as Digital Transformation, Information Technology and cloud investments,’ the study notes.
The role of the ‘Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)’ is also gaining relevance, with a third of those surveyed saying that this executive’s involvement in strategic conversations about technological capabilities has increased significantly in the last year. However, there are challenges in terms of trust: while 52 per cent of respondents say they are confident in the ability of leadership and boards of directors to manage cybersecurity issues, only 34 per cent of professionals in the field report the same level of trust.