Latest survey results – May 2019

The latest International Cyber Benchmarks Index™, for May 2019, is 23.1, maintaining the upward trend.

Impact of cyber attacks

Most participants continued to agree that a Web Application Firewall (WAF) is an essential component of their security infrastructure. This increases the 12 months survey average by one point.

Likelihood of noticing smaller multi vector attacks

Fewer than 3 in 10 organizations are very likely to notice smaller multi vector attacks, suggesting that greater awareness would be beneficial.

Whether organization has a portal that monitors any type of attack

1 in 5 (19%) of organizations do not have a portal that monitors all types of attack and would like to have a portal like this.

Cyber threats ranked in order of level of concern

During March-April 2019, System compromise was the greatest concern followed closely by DDoS and then Ransomware.

How threat of attack by various vectors has changed

During March-April 2019, Generalized phishing was most likely to be perceived as an increasing threat to organisations, followed by Social engineering – email and DDoS.

How organisations’ ability to respond to threats has changed

During March-April 2019, organisations have focused most on increasing their ability to respond to DDoS and Ransomware.

How the risk of attack from various actors has changed

During March-April 2019, organisations have perceived the most likely increase in threats to be from Criminals and Unknown actors.

How threat landscape has changed

During March-April 2019, organisations have continued to perceive the threat landscape to be increasing most from the World at large and least from within their own company.

Whether respondents have ever been on the receiving end of a DDoS

54% of enterprises surveyed in May 2019 indicated that they have been on the receiving end of a DDoS attack at some time, a higher proportion than in previous reporting periods*.

* Note that the sample composition changes from wave to wave which explains why the trend for this question can be down as well as up.

Whether survey respondents outsource DDoS mitigation

52% of enterprises surveyed in May 2019 outsource their DDoS mitigation, slightly more than the previous reporting period.

Length of time taken to initiate DDoS mitigation

In May 2019, enterprises were most likely to take between 60 seconds and 5 minutes to initiate DDoS mitigation, in line with previous reporting periods.