The not-for-profit technology industry association CompTIA recently released its 2016 International Trends in Cybersecurity report after analyzing the current state of cybersecurity and assessing behaviors and techniques currently being used by organizations around the world to tackle the growing risk of cyberattacks.
To compile the report, CompTIA surveyed 1,509 IT security professionals from 12 countries around the world, including Australia, Canada, India, Brazil, Malaysia, Japan, South Africa, the UAE and the UK.
The International Trends in Cybersecurity report shows that information security is still a major concern for IT and business executives, which is perhaps no surprise given the number of cybersecurity threats they now have to deal with. The report showed that over the course of the past 12 months, 73% of organizations had experienced at least one security incident and 60% of those security incidents were classed as serious.
The highest number of security incidents occurred in India, where 94% of companies experienced a security breach in the past 12 months, closely followed by Malaysia on 89%, and Brazil and Mexico with 87% of companies suffering at least one breach. Japan and the UAE fared the best, with just 39% and 40% of companies self-reporting a security breach.
Security incidents involving mobile devices are becoming much more prevalent as the use of the devices increases. 76% of companies across all 12 countries experienced a mobile-related data breach in the past 12 months. In Thailand, 95% of companies had experienced a mobile-related security breach. In the UK, 64% of companies experienced a mobile-related incident. Companies in Japan and the UAE fared the best with 60% of companies experiencing breach of mobile data.
Human error continues to be a major cause of security breaches and the situation is getting worse. Companies are tackling the issue with training to improve awareness of cybersecurity issues and ensure security best practices are adopted.
Nearly 80% of managers responsible for data security expect cybersecurity to become even more important over the next two years. The increasing reliance on mobile technology and cloud computing has required a major rethink about how systems and data need to be protected from attack. These were listed as the main drivers behind changes in cybersecurity practices in 10 out of the 12 countries where respondents were located.