Hacked Off!
2019

Introduction
Introducing Bitdefender Hacked Off! A comprehensive study into thecybersecurity attitudes of infosecurity professionals around the world“From organisational weaknesses to infosec professionals’ pressure points and what they’re doing to combat them,
Hacked Off! aims to shine a light on the current state of play of the global cybersecurity landscape by focusing on threecore areas:

Weak spots

StressStrategy

Exploring individuals’ perception

Analysing the most significant stress

Hearing directly from cybersecurityof risk and the top internal

factors for infosec professionals,

professionals about their current

and external threats facing

as well as the training and support

infosecurity strategies and plans toorganisations

available to themsafeguard their organisations“This Bitdefender survey of more than 6,000 infosec professionals in large organisations across the US, EMEA and
APAC shows that while many rate their cybersecurity as ‘good’, a continued lack of budget, talent and training meansthat there is still significant scope for improvement. A large portion of them believe that the best way of defending
against advanced attacks is to provide training & support. This is proved by the fact that organisations which are placing
more emphasis on training are better at detecting attacks quickly, and more efficient at isolating them. Ultimately,
cybersecurity has improved over the last 36 months, but IT workers are still facing a great deal of stress and risk. Thismeans that getting the right strategies and solutions in place is imperative. In fact, it will ensure the trend of stress andrisk doesn’t stretch into future years.”
Bogdan Botezatu, Director or Threat Research at Bitdefender

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Introduction

57

of companies have experienced
a breach in either 2017, 2018, or 201924of companies have already suffered36%

of companies who haven’t suffered a cyberattack, believe that it is likely that they are
currently facing one without knowing about it%%

Small Gains, Big WinsH
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Introduction“In the last 12 months, cybersecurity professionals have had to step up their game. As the threat landscape has grown
more complex, more comprehensive infosec strategies and solutions have had to be employed to protect business
continuity. However, there are still gaps.
“From squeezed budgets and inadequate training to a lack of talent and resourcing, the door has been left ajar for
determined cybercriminals to exploit all but the savviest of organisations. Additionally, with the media’s continual focus on
cybersecurity failures, organisations which are left exposed to threats could very well find themselves with all the wrong
sorts of publicity. It’s no wonder infosec professionals are feeling hacked off!
“CISOs and infosec professionals are, however, acknowledging the steps needed to better protect their businesses improve.
For example, a lack of time is a huge factor and a massive weak spot for many organisations. The fact that many infosec
professionals are aware that this needs to improve is the first step to fixing the problem. Additionally, the tools available
and the understanding of cybersecurity far exceeds previous years, but there is still a risk of becoming complacent.
Everyone, from the CISO to the IT professional has to understand that cybersecurity is a constant, ongoing process.
Modern business requirements and an advancing threatscape now require that strategies are regularly evaluated andimproved upon.
“So what does all this mean for cybersecurity in 2019? Especially for those whose organisations’ have already been subject
to attack, it may mean many more sleepless nights are ahead. However, it’s not to say that things can’t get better.”Bogdan Botezatu, Director or Threat Research at Bitdefender

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Assessing the threatscape:

Weak Spots
No organisation is impervious to a data breach, but by understanding how bothcybersecurity professionals and IT departments view risk, some clear weak spots
start to emerge — both on an organisational and individual level. Highlighting areas
for improvement can only happen through increasing visibility.

Weak spots
Skills and the state of security

How do you currently rate your organisation’s…?
Poor

Infosec professionals’ view of theirorganisational cybersecurity is, on thewhole, fair or good. But, there is room for
improvement.

Fair

Good

Very good

Excellent

37%

36%

35%

34%

33%
29%

57% of infosec professionals rate their organisations’27%

cybersecurity either very good or excellent. Another 24%

27%

26%

24%

believe that it is good. This shows that the majority of IT
workers are reasonably confident in their organisation’s

21%

21%

20%

cybersecurity position.
15%

However, just shy of one in five infosec professionals (19%)
say cybersecurity skills are excellent, and 21% say they

21%

19%

14%

13%

13%

12%

would rate their IT colleagues skills as excellent. Overall,cybersecurity knowledge seems to be high, but with anincreasingly complex threat landscape, skills improvement

6%
4%

is an area in need of investment.
How do you currently
rate your organisation’s
cybersecurity?

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How do you currently
rate your cybersecurity
knowledge?

5%3%

How do you currently
rate your cybersecurity
skill set?

How do you currently
rate your IT colleagues’
cybersecurity knowledge?

3%

How do you currently
rate your IT colleagues’
cybersecurity skill sets?

Weak spots
It’s a minefield out there
What are the biggest infosec threats
to organisations in 2019?

Which type of cyber attack / cyber risk, in your opinion, poses the biggest threat(s) to yourorganisation in 2019?

Out of the possible threats to an organisation, 36%
of IT workers think phishing or whaling attacks posethe biggest threat. Understandable, given the fact thatphishing is often used to break into corporate networks,paving the way for more damaging attacks i.e. Carbanak.

36%

Phishing / whaling attack

29%
Trojans28%

28%

Ransomware

Legal and compliance risks

20%

0%

24%

Unpatched software

However, across Europe, this differs considerably; forexample, 43% of IT workers in Germany see phishing /whaling the biggest threat, compared to 33% in Spain.
Comparing this to 2018: the biggest threat was
ransomware (20.4%) and phishing / whaling was only
10.8%. This is evidence of an ever-evolving threat
landscape and highlights why organisations have to keepon their toes.

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24%
DDoS attack

22%

Social media threats

APTs and cyber espionage

Other

4%

Don’t knowWeak spots
A new era for breaches

How likely it is that you are currently facing a cyber attack without knowing about it?

Organisations are still experiencing breaches, but has the threat
improved over time?

Don’t know

Over the past three years, the number of companies suffering from data breaches has

A sure thing

6%3%

decreased, which is positive.
However, 36% of infosec professionals think their companies are likely facing a cyberattack without knowing about it. This raises questions over whether breaches havedeclined, or whether organisations are finding it more difficult to identify that data haseven been exfiltrated from their organisation.

Yes

25%

10%

Don’t know

69%

32%

Somewhat likely

23%

Geographical differences
In 2017, 50% of companies in Spain suffered from a data breach compared
to only 39% globally. In 2019, 24% of companies globally suffered from a data32%

breach, compared to just 13% in Italy.

24%

7%

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No

63%

39%

2017

Very likely

Somewhat unlikely

Did your company suffer a breach in…?

54%

Very unlikely

7%

5%
2018

2019

Consistently, companies in Italy scored the highest for reporting that they had not
suffered a data breach. Is this a cultural reason, or something more?

Weak spots
Data breaches: consequences and outcomes

Whatsmore, only 27% of respondents would see legal fines and penalties as themain consequence of their company being unaware of a current, ongoing breach.

We know that breaches are happening, but what does itmean for an organisation?

This is surprising, given the recent high-profile GDPR fines. Does this suggest thatthe current penalties aren’t working in terms of driving organisations to improvetheir security posture?

Business interruption is seen as the main consequence (43%) amongst infosec
professionals of being unaware of a currently ongoing breach. Understandably, thiscan have a detrimental impact on an organisation, resulting in loss of customers
and / or revenue.

Industry interruptions

What would be the main consequences for your company of being unaware of acurrently ongoing breach?

Over half (52%) in manufacturing see business

37%

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27%
Legal fines and penalties

Intellectual property loss

Loss of revenue

Reputational costs

Business interruptions

31%

Compared to retail, where the main consequence isbelieved to be loss of revenue (51%).

23%

0%

Don’t know

38%

Other

43%

Job loss for responsible IT and C-level execs

interruptions as the main consequence3%

Weak spots
Data breaches: consequences
and outcomes
We know that breaches are happening,
but what does it mean for an organisation?

What would you be most concerned about should a data breach happen at your organisation tomorrow?
(IT C-suite)

39%

Looking ahead to long-term outcomes of a large scale breach,
IT C-suiters still cite a loss of customer trust to be their biggest
concern (39%), should their organisation be breached tomorrow.
It was also its top concern last year (42%).

16%

14%

15%

14%

3%
Loss ofcustomer trust

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Loss ofinvestment

Being finedby regulatory
authority

Loss ofsupplier / third
party trust

Loss ofemployee trust

Don’t knowWeak spots
The cure and the cause
The reasons behind security breaches
have changed over the past three years,
but some key culprits remain.

How was your company breached in…?
2017

2018

2019

21%
20%

20%
19%
18%

18%
17%

17%

17%

Over the last three years nearly two fifths of all data breaches

16%

16% 16%

were due to either external actors (e.g. malware) or employee

14%

14% 14% 14%

negligence. However, employee negligence as a cause of a13%

company’s data breach has declined over the last three years,

12%

suggesting that there is now a better understanding of correct
infosecurity practices.
Software failure has, however, remained relatively consistentthroughout the last three years as the cause of a data breach.
This is an interesting point as despite software becoming moreadvanced, it is not necessarily risk-free.
2%
1% 1%
Employeenegligence

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External actors(i.e. malware)

SoftwarefailureThird-party(i.e. MSP)
maliciousness

HardwarefailureThird-party(i.e. MSP)
negligence

Don’t knowWeak spots
Playing by the rules

While there aren’t great differences in regards to departments which push back /disregard organisational cybersecurity policy, it does somewhat correlate with the

While push back on infosecurity rules isn’t entirely
unexpected, it’s concerning that some roles anddepartments seem to disregard them altogether.

departments that are deemed as most ‘at risk’. Legal pushes back the least, while senior
management the most.
Which department in your company pushes back / disregards the rules the most in
regards to organisational cybersecurity policy?

The majority of infosec professionals believe their financial department ismost at risk from a data breach.

Pushes back the rules

Which department / area in your organisation would you say is most at
risk of a data breach?

Disregards the rules

Finance
28%

24%

48%

Human Resources
28%

26%

46%

Legal

19%

15%

Finance

14%

SeniorManagement

12%

Marketing /
Comms

12%

Human
Resources

27%

23%

50%

Sales

Sales

28%

29%

43%

27%

44%

Marketing / Communications
29%
R&D
28%

11%
R&D

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5%
Legal

3%
Other

9%

Don’t know

24%

48%

Senior management
29%

28%

43%

NeitherWeak spots
Time is of the essence

Is reaction time a key differentiator in mitigating cyber attacks?

78%

Most cybersecurity professionals claim to spot advanced cyberattacks quickly, but why is it important to detect at speed?
The majority of infosec professionals (78%) believe that reaction time is the key
differentiator for mitigating cyber attacks

15%

How long would it take you to detect an advanced cyber attack, i.e. an attack thatutilised a zero-day exploit

Yes

No

6%
Don’t know

Given the emphasis on the importance of time, the majority of companies claim they
Don’t know

8%

Hours

34%

7-12 months

3%
1-6 months

9%

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why are threats still going unidentified?

In agreement, regardless of role

More than one year

1%

could detect an advanced cyber attack within hours. But if reaction times are this good,

Days

28%

82% of security directors see reaction time as the key
differentiator in mitigating cyber attacks
The majority of day-to-day IT workers (78%) believe that reaction time is the

Weeks

16

%

key differentiator for mitigating cyber attacks, with 81% arguing that this is sothey can identify the source of the attack, isolate it and stop it from spreading .

Weak spots
Breaking down barriers

What are the main obstacles that prevent rapid incident detection and response?

Despite the majority of infosec
professionals having confidence in theirorganisations’ cybersecurity, there arestill obstacles to overcome.

36%

36%
31%

31%

31%
28%

According to 72% of infosec professionals, a lack ofproper security tools and knowledge are considered the

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1%

Don’t know

Other

Lack of time

Lack of visibility

detection and response.

Lack of budget

are the main obstacle preventing rapid incident

Lack of personnel

lack of proper security tools within their organisations

Lack of knowledge

and response. In fact, 42% of the infosec C-level think a

Lack of proper security tools

main obstacles that prevent rapid incident detection

5%

Weak spots
The threat landscape evolves rapidly. External threats that were commonplace three years ago have shifted, but that’s
the nature of the beast when working within information security. The good news is that breaches have slightly fallen
since 2017, and, for the most part, infosec professionals are confident in their organisations’ cybersecurity capabilities.
However, confidence isn’t breeding complacency. There are still concerns that budget and personnel are lacking whenit comes to meeting some current and future challenges.
Additionally, not all employees are playing ball across the business when it comes to following the rules. If corners
are going to be cut in the name of getting the job done quickly, then robust solutions need to be in place to catch any
resultant mistakes.
With all this in mind, it’s understandable that infosec professionals are feeling stressed, but just how is this affecting
their roles?
Liviu Arsene, Global Cybersecurity Researcher at Bitdefender

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Influencing security decisions:

StressOrganisational weak spots and infosecurity stressors go hand in hand.
From employees lacking training to basic cyber negligence, uncovering
what keeps infosec professionals up at night is the first step towards
implementing strategies that can help individuals in their roles, and theirorganisations more widely.

Stress
What keeps infosec professionals up at night?
Stress is common in most jobs, but what is the number one
stressor for cybersecurity professionals?
While still a pressured role, the IT C-suite is getting more sleep than it used to.

A lack of cybersecurity understanding from day-to-day knowledge workers is IT
professionals’ number one stressor (36%) in regards to their role, followed by being
under-resourced in terms of staffing (33%) and a lack of cybersecurity understanding
from senior management (30%).
What causes you the most stress in your role in regards to cybersecurity?

Just under half (49%) are losing sleep worrying about their organisational
cybersecurity, compared to 58% just 18 months ago.

36%

Have you ever been kept awake at night worrying about your organisation’s
cybersecurity? (IT C-suite)

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27%

Don’t know

46%

29%

Regulation (e.g. GDPR and CLOUD Act)

Very unlikely

29%

Lack of latest infosec technology

49%

30%

Being under-resourced (financially)5%

Lack of cybersecurity understanding from senior management

A sure thing

Being under-resourced (in terms of staff)

Don’t know

Lack of cybersecurity understanding from general employees

33%

5%

Stress
Understaffed and under-resourced

Unsurprisingly, under-resourcing and cyber attacks go hand in hand, with nearly threequarters (73%) of security professionals saying their organisation is at risk of an attack

The impact of lack of resource on staff, and wider
organisational risk, is impossible to ignore.

due to resourcing issues.
Do you think your organisation is more at risk of a cyber attack as a result of being
under-resourced?

Over half (53%) of security professionals have considered leaving their current role due
to being under-resourced both financially and in terms of staffing.

Yes

Have any of the following caused you to ever contemplate leaving your job?

53%
47%

47%

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Being under-resourced (financially)

Being under-resourced (in terms of staff)

Regulation (e.g. GDPR and CLOUD Act)

43%

53%
47%

No

73%

48%
54%
46%
52%

Lack of latest infosec technology

53%

Lack of cybersecurity understanding from general employees

57%

Lack of cybersecurity understanding from senior management

Yes

No

22%
Don’t know

5%Stress
Understaffed andunder-resourced

How difficult is managing detection and response capabilities in terms of staffing and time consumption?

40%

The impact of lack of resource on staff,
and wider organisational risk,
is impossible to ignore.
Infosec professionals are struggling when it comes to27%

managing their detection and response capabilities interms of staffing and time consumption, with a massive
84% finding it difficult to some degree.

17%
11%
5%

Very difficult

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Somewhat difficult

DifficultNot difficult

Don’t know

Stress
History repeating itself
As one of the most well-known breaches of recent years, haveorganisations learnt their lessons to prepare for another global
security crisis on the scale of WannaCry?

If another global cyber attack similar to the scale of WannaCry struck, would you be
worried about your organisation’s infosec readiness?

58%

Industry isn’t blind to large scale cybersecurity threats, but it’s clear that somebusinesses still haven’t learnt their lesson with 32% of infosec professionals feelingthey couldn’t cope with another global cyber attack such as GoldenEye or WannaCry.

32%

Geographical differences
This again differs considerably based on the country.
For example, 73% of IT professionals in Spain would be
worried about their companies’ infosec readiness if faced

9%with a global cyber attack, compared to 51% in Germany.
Misplaced confidence, or better preparation?
Yes

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No

Don’t know

Stress
Getting over alert fatigue

Of the respondents surveyed, a significant 63% found that up to 75% of their endpoint

IT teams are getting fed up with the number of alertsfrom infosec solutions, but becoming desensitised
carries its own risks...
Just under half (49%) of IT teams are getting fed up with the significant

detection and response (EDR) alerts were false alarms. While being adequately preparedin the event of a breach is important, the sheer number of alerts runs a very real risk ofdesensitising infosec professionals.
Of all the endpoint detection and response (EDR) alerts your security team handles,
how many are false alarms?

amount of alerts from their infosec solutions.

24%

Does your IT team experience both alert and agent fatigue?

21%
49%

18%

17%
38%

9%
13%

5%

4%
1%

Yes

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No

Don’t know

100%

76 - 99%

51 - 75%

26 - 50%

1 - 25%

0%

Don’t
know

We don’t
use EDR
solutionsSafeguarding organisations:

StrategyWith areas for improvement highlighted, infosec professionals can start to assess
whether their current cybersecurity strategy is fit for purpose. But having a goodstrategy isn’t enough by itself — it’ll need to be put into practice, and be backed
up by a combination of the right technology, the right talent and a thoroughunderstanding of the risks facing the organisation.

Strategy
Teamwork makes the dream work
Having the right technology to protect against threats is one
thing, but what about building an effective team?

However, this is easier for businesses with more resources, as three quarters (79%) oflarge organisations have a SOC compared to just 60% of small organisations.
Three in ten organisations (30%) don’t have a SOC, and of these organisations, 81%
regard the ability to respond quickly and remediate potential threats as well as the

70% of organisations have a SOC (a team of IT security specialists that deals withspeed to investigate suspicious activity, as the biggest challenges of not having one.

security issues — 24/7 proactive monitoring and threat hunting — on an organisational

This is telling in light of the above findings that the reaction time and speed are the key

and technical level). This is positive because having a dedicated team means there isdifferentiators for mitigating an attack.

less room for oversight or error when it comes to cybersecurity.
If you don’t have a SOC, what challenges does this create?
Do you have a security operations centre (SOC)?

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23%
18%

0%

Don’t know

11%

Other

Visibility of environment

Unknown attackers inside network

30%

30%

Keep up with alerts

No

35%

Monitoring activities

70

%

40%

Speed to investigate suspicious activity

Yes

Ability to quickly respond and remediate potential threats

41%

Strategy
What are the main benefits that a SOC offers?

46%

Having the right technology to protect
against threats is one thing, but what
about building an effective team?

37%

34%

32%

31%

29%

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Incident investigations and forensics

Cybersecurity exercise

Remediation and containment

Prevention and pen-testing

networks in real-time for security vulnerabilities.

Threat intelligence analysis

the main benefit of a SOC being its ability to monitor

Real-time network security monitoring

Just under half (46%) of infosec professionals perceive

Other

Teamwork makes the
dream work

0%

Strategy
How important is speed, for example, the ability to rapidly identify/ isolate threats, in each of the following
elements of your security stack?

69%

68%

66%
60%

Speed is rated as being important across the

Endpoint Protection

against cyber threats.

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20%
13%

26%
19%
11%

14%

Application Control

can react, the faster you can isolate and remediate

Sandboxing

professionals. The consensus being the faster you

Endpoint Detection and Response

security stack by roughly two-thirds of infosec

21%
13%

% Important

66%

67%

66%

22%
13%

Anti-Exploit / Memory Protection

Speed makes a difference, but how
does it differ across an organisation’s
tech stack?

% Neutral

22%
12%

Patch Management% Not important

Automated Network Traffic Analysis (Machine Learning)

The faster the reaction,
the better the result

21%
12%

Strategy
Creating a smart detection strategy

The overwhelming consensus from infosec professionals is that EDR tools will beessential to help prevent future attacks (71% agree).

What are infosecurity workers using to stay protected?

Do you think forensic capabilities and visibility tools (EDR) help prevent future attacks?
Network traffic analysis and antimalware technology top the list at 40%
and 37% respectively in regards to the technologies that cybersecurity
professionals cite as being the most effective at detecting cyber threats.
Don’t know

Which do you think is most effective in detecting cyber threats?

11%

40%
37%

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32%
No

17%

27%

0%

Don’t know

21%

Other

Outsourced security to MSP/MSSP

Automated Sandboxing

Machine learning

22%

Behaviour based detection

In-house Human cybersecurity researchers / SOC

Antimalware technology - EPP/EDR

Network traffic analysis

34%

5%

Yes

72%

Strategy
Creating a smart detection
strategy

Using your current security tools, what percentage of advanced attacks can be efficiently detected and isolated?

25%

What are infosecurity workers using
to stay protected?

20%

20%

Using their current security tools, only 3% of IT
professionals reported that 100% of advanced
attacks can be efficiently detected and isolated —13%

proving there is always room for improvement!

9%

8%
3%

2%
Less than10%

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10-25%

26-50%

51-75%

76-90%

Over 90%Alladvanced
attacks

Don’t know

Strategy
The drivers behind infosec changes

IT professionals place the most emphasis on training (38%), next-gen security solutions(35%) and network traffic analytics (34%) in regards to defending against advanced

Data protection is still the biggest driver for improving
organisational cybersecurity, but do businesses keep
themselves safe both now and into the future?

attacks on their organisation.
Unsurprisingly, improved data protection remains the main driver (41%) for IT
professionals enhancing their company’s cybersecurity posture. This is followed byHacked Off!
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faster detection and response capabilities (38%) and easier management of the IT
environment (32%).

27%

0%

Don’t know

22%

Other

23%

Greater scalability

Allows flexibility

24%

Allows room for expansion

27%

Cost savings

3%

32%

Increased productivity

2%

Easier management of the IT environment

22%

Faster detection and response capabilities

25%

38%

Improved data protection

Security audits

Layered security

27%

41%

Don’t know

33%

There is no efficient defence against advanced cyberattacks

34%

Log monitoring

35%

Traditional security (antimalware and endpoint protection solutions)

What are the main drivers for enhancing your company’s cybersecurity posture?

Network Traffic Analytics

Cybersecurity training

38%

Next generation security (endpoint detection and response capabilities)

What do you think is the best security defence approach against
advanced attacks in your organisation?

4%

Strategy
The real cost of cybersecurity

A lack of budget and skilled personnel again come up top in regards to being some of
the main obstacles to strengthening company cybersecurity posture, at 39% and 35%

Are budgets reflecting the increase in awareness ofcybersecurity best practice and strategy?

respectively.

What are the main obstacles to strengthening your company’s cybersecurity posture?

Encouragingly, over two-thirds (70%) of organisations are providing ongoing infosecurity
training and support to their staff.
Is your organisation providing ongoing infosecurity training and support?

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Lack of infrastructure-agnostic security

Lack of visibility

Lack of predictability

Lack of skilled personnel

Lack of budget

24%

Lack of control over backups and snapshots

27%

22%

5%
20%
No

25%
1%

Don’t know

30%

Don’t know

Other

35%

Lack of granular access control over virtual machines and VMs pools

39%

5%

Yes

70%

Strategy
The real cost of cybersecurity

Over half (55%) of infosec professionals believe their IT security budget, whilesufficient, could not accommodate an expansion of infrastructure or workforce.

Despite the increase in awareness of cybersecurity bestpractice and the greater emphasis on strategy, are budgets
reflecting this?

Nearly three-fifths of small and medium-sized businesses (59%) believe their
IT security budget is sufficient, but it could not accommodate an expansion of
infrastructure or workforce.

Additionally, around three in five (57%) organisations have a dedicated budget for

How would you rate the IT security budget of the company you work in?

incident investigation and forensic (EDR).
Does your company have a dedicated IT security budget for incident investigationand forensic (EDR)?

No

31

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Sufficient

%

18%

8%
Don’t know

57%

InsufficientYes

Sufficient, but could not sustain a future increase in headcount

12%

33%

Sufficient, but could not accommodate infrastructure expansion

Don’t know

37%

4%

To conclude

Conclusion“Organisations which have experienced breaches“Smaller companies have greater challenges, in“The stresses and strains on security professionals

are on high alert. Infosec professionals that haveparticular around cybersecurity skills and knowledge,

are starting to show, with just over half (53%) having

experienced such an incident since 2017 are more

as well as detecting and isolating cyber attacks.

considered leaving their current role due to being under-

likely to be kept awake worrying about it happening

While security operations centres (SOCs) can makeresourced, both financially, and in terms of staffing.

again. They also produce detailed reports on previous,

a big difference in larger organisations — the cost

While budgets are always likely to be in flux, the lack ofand identified, cyber attacks more regularly. However,of maintaining such a resource can sometimes betalent in the infosecurity space does signal the widening

it’s not all doom and gloom — as the overall amount ofprohibitive for companies with smaller headcounts.

skills gap issue. By placing more emphasis on training

breaches to happen across organisations in the last

In these instances, automated security solutions canand support for existing employees — organisations canthree years has continued to reduce.”

go a long way to help bridge the talent gap.”

at least go some way to alleviating talent pressures.”

Liviu Arsene, Global Cybersecurity Researcher at Bitdefender

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Conclusion“People want to get their jobs done, but this shouldn’t“Infosec professionals believe that the best way of“With an average of 53% of EDR alerts being false alarms

be at the expense of poor cybersecurity hygiene —defending against advanced cybersecurity attacks

and 29% of infosec professionals saying that it would

especially at the top of the tree. Concerningly, senior

is to provide adequate training (38%). This is proved

take a week or longer to detect an advanced cybermanagement is a main offender at flouting infosec

by the fact that organisations providing info security

attack, there’s clearly a need for improvement in dealing

rules with 57% either pushing back on or completely

training & support are better at detecting attacks

with potential threats. This is where a next-gen EDR

disregarding the rules. This makes them the most ‘atquickly, and are more efficient at isolating them. In

solution can help, such as Bitdefender GravityZone Ultra.

risk’ for departmental data breaches according to theiraddition, cybersecurity executives are placing increased

Unlike other endpoint security solutions whose poor

infosec colleagues. Business decision makers should beemphasis across next-gen security solutions (35%)

prevention makes them noisy and complex to operate,

leading by example; otherwise, it’ll be them that have toand network traffic analytics (34%) to keep their

Bitdefender has developed over 30 layers of protection

pick up the pieces when disaster strikes.”organisations safe and secure.”

for all endpoints, offering the world’s most effective
protection integrated with low overhead EDR and
Endpoint Risk Analytics (ERA) in a single agent, single
console architecture.”
Bogdan Botezatu, Director or Threat Research at Bitdefender

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Survey Method
The Bitdefender Hacked Off! Study was conductedamong 6086 IT workers in July 2019 across the
UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France,
Italy and Spain. Representing a broad cross section

Respondents by geography

Respondents by number of employees

34%

8%

US

Italy

28%

8%

UK

Spain

17%
16%
15%

of organisations and industries, from fledgelingSMEs, through to publicly listed 10,000+ person
enterprises. The report details the pressures facedby IT professionals, how these pressures impact the

13%
12%

12%

effectiveness of security measures, as well as analysing
the best strategies to keep organisations safe.
All audience members utilise and/or have decisionmaking power over data security solutions and software

8%

9%

4%

FranceAustralia

8%1%Germany

New Zealand7%

security products.
The interviews were conducted online by Sapio
Research in July 2019 using an email invitation and an
online survey.

124

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25 99

100 249

250 499

500 999

1000 4,999

5000 9,999

10,000+Survey Method
Respondents by geography

Respondents by number of employees

26%

18%

14%
12%

Hacked Off!
34

1%

Other

1%

CISO

CSO

4%

CIO

CTO

IT director

4%
IT manager

2%

IT administrator

Security administrator

3%

Security analyst

5%
Security manager

Systems administrator

9%2% Agriculture

4% Government

1%

Recreation

1% Apparel

5% Healthcare

4%

Retail

3% Biotech

1% Hospitality

1%

Shipping

2% Chemical

2% Insurance

25% Technology

4% Construction

1% Legal3%

Telecom

6% Education

6% Automotive

Manufacturing/

2%

Transportation

9% Electronics

3% Entertainment

1%

Utility

1% Energy

1% Third sector

2%

Other

5% Finance

1% Pharmaceuticals&
1% Food
Beverage

5% Services

Media &

Not-for-Profit/

Professional

About Bitdefender
Bitdefender is a global security technology company thatprovides cutting edge end-to-end cybersecurity solutions
and advanced threat protection to more than 500 million
users in more than 150 countries. Since 2001, Bitdefender
has consistently produced award-winning businessand consumer security technology and is a provider ofchoice in both hybrid infrastructure security and endpoint
protection. Through R&D, alliances and partnerships,
Bitdefender is trusted to be ahead and deliver robust
security you can rely on.

Contact Us
bitdefender.com
800 388 8062
publicrelations@bitdefender.com
twitter.com/Bitdefender_Ent

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