The Voice of the CISO Report for 2021 was recently published by Proofpoint. After a year of pandemic lockdowns, this first white paper examines the core issues facing Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs).
Proofpoint is a cybersecurity and compliance firm that helps businesses protect their employees and users from email, cloud, and web-based cybersecurity threats. It works to protect their data, avoid targeted threats, and make their users more secure against cyberattacks.
According to the Voice of the CISO Report for 2021, 66% of CISOs believe their company is unprepared to deal with a cyber-attack. Meanwhile, 58% see human error as their greatest cyber vulnerability, which is exacerbated by the pandemic’s mandatory work-from-home requirement. Working from home puts a strain on cybersecurity resources. 64% of CISOs polled believe their organization is at risk of a major cyber-attack in the next 12 months. In 2021, 53% of CISOs are more worried about the consequences of a cyber-attack than they were last year. Furthermore, more than half of respondents claim they have too many aspirations for their positions.
Commenting on the development, Ryan Kalember, Executive Vice President of Cybersecurity Strategy for Proofpoint, gave a statement with the release “The ‘good enough’ approach of the past 12 months will simply not work in the long term: with businesses unlikely to ever return to pre-pandemic working practices, the mandate to strengthen cybersecurity defenses has never been more pressing.”
“CISOs hold a business-critical function, now more than ever. The findings from our report emphasize that CISOs need the tools to mitigate risk and develop a strategy that takes a people-centric approach to cybersecurity protection to address ever-changing conditions, like those experienced by organizations throughout the pandemic.”