Cyber criminals biggest threat, say security pros

Hackers are among the biggest threats against organisations, according to the many online security personnel who took part in a survey conducted by ISACA and RSA Conference.

Those selected to answer questions for the  survey came from all over the globe, with 20 per cent from Asia, 36 per cent from Africa and Europe, and 32 per cent from the US. The majority (80 per cent) were ISACA members.

The results were announced by CA Technologies’ innovation and strategy vice president, Rob Stroud, at an RSA event.

Survey participants were asked to name the threat actors that they felt exploited their organisation at any point last year. Of the 636 who responded, 290 offered ‘cyber criminals’ as a reply. Non-malicious insiders were a close second with 259, and 255 said that hackers had targeted them.

Stroud said he didn’t expect cyber criminals to be perceived as the main threat. He told SCMagazineUK.com:

“It’s something we hear about and read about but in the last year we have really started to see a focus or concentration of criminals using cyber as a vehicle to attack organisations and individuals.”

It isn’t only cyber pros in recent years who have discovered the extent of damage that internet criminals can cause. Business owners have been subject to data breaches that have seriously affected their organisations. That’s why that it is so important, in the heavily digitised age in which we live, for businesses to take cyber security seriously and prioritise IT security recruitment.