Senior security professionals are pessimistic about cyber incident response
.jpg)
Nominet has announced the findings of its Cyber Confidence Report, which analysed almost 300 senior security practitioners in the UK and US. The report finds that many respondents are not confident in their organization’s cyber resilience and its ability to recover from an incident.
Many CISOs are being put in compromising positions, with 71 percent saying that their organization uses the security posture of the organization as a selling point, despite the CISOs lack of confidence in the security stack. When asked how confident they were in an organization’s final choice of security solutions, 34 percent of CISOs said that they were only somewhat or slightly confident. In addition, only 17 percent of those questioned said that the array of technology making up their security stack was completely effective.
“It is critical that security professionals and the wider business are on the same page when it comes to cyber defence,” said Stuart Reed, VP of Cyber Security at Nominet. “While it is natural that a CISO might be slightly more cautious about claiming the effectiveness of the security solutions in place – because there is no silver bullet – more than a third not being even moderately confident in the final choice of a security solution is a worry, particularly when businesses are touting the benefits of their cyber defence. This disconnect in cyber confidence should act as an alarm bell to organizations and potentially prompt some investigation and analysis.”
Bouncing back from a breach: UK vs US
The Cyber Confidence Report also looked at the level of confidence among CISOs whose organization had suffered a breach. While suffering a breach in the past 12 months didn’t impact the perception of security posture, it did impact the confidence around dealing with that type of breach again. In fact, two thirds (68 percent) of those hit by a breach in the past 12 months did not display a high level of confidence in their organization’s ability to defend and recover from a similar attack again.
There was also an interesting distinction between the UK and US. US respondents were twice as likely to be very confident in the ability of an organization to defend against a similar attack; 40 percent compared to 22 percent respectively. That was despite the fact that almost twice as many respondents in the US compared to the UK reported more than 30 breaches in the past 12 months; 20 percent compared to 11 percent.
“There is a difference between the security market in the UK and US and this is incredibly important for both vendors and third-party advisors to understand. What might reassure a CISO in the US won’t necessarily have the same effect in the UK and we need to be aware of the cultural and contextual difference to ensure that CISOs are supported and empowered to regain confidence in the security infrastructure they implement,” continued Reed.
Re-prioritising: measurement & third-party management
In terms of building confidence in the security posture of an organization, 20 percent of CISOs either didn’t test the performance of their security stack once it was in place or didn’t know if it was being tested. A lack of knowledge about the effectiveness of their security stack could be generating a lack of confidence among senior security professionals.
It is also important to look at investment decisions and how they might be contributing to the cyber confidence among senior security professionals. With 76 percent believing that cybersecurity is an increasing priority within their organization, it begs the question of where investment should be spent. Areas ranked top for investment over the next three years are cyber monitoring (16 percent), cyber resilience (14 percent) and cyber governance (12 percent).
Methodology
Nominet commissioned a survey of 274 chief information security officers (CISOs), chief technology officers (CTOs), chief information officers (CIOs) and other professionals with responsibility for overseeing the cybersecurity of their organization.
Respondents were sourced from large organizations (with 2,500 employees or more) within the UK (117) and the US (157), spanning a range of industries and sectors including automotive, critical national infrastructure (CNI), finance, government, healthcare, hospitality, legal, life sciences, retail, transport and utilities.
source continuitycentral
Industry: Cyber Security
Latest Jobs
-
- Public Sector Cyber Security Sales | UK
- England
- N/A
-
Public Sector Cyber Security Sales | UK UK | Remote / Hybrid A cyber security provider is seeking a Public Sector Sales professional to drive growth across UK government and public sector organisations. Must have current Cyber Security sales experience. Responsibilities Generate new business selling cyber security solutions into UK public sector Build relationships with CIO, CISO and senior technology stakeholders Manage the full sales cycle from opportunity to contract close Develop pipeline across central government, local government and public sector bodies Support bids, tenders and framework opportunities Experience Proven cyber security sales experience in the UK Track record selling into public sector organisations Familiarity with CCS, G Cloud or other government frameworks Strong stakeholder engagement and deal management skills Location UK based Security Requirements Eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance
-
- Security Architect | MoD - Security Cleared. OUTSIDE IR35 | Hampshire
- N/A
- Outside IR35
-
Security Architect | MOD | Security Cleared | Outside IR35 | Hampshire Commutable The successful candidate must be willing to undergo DV Clearance, ideally already holding active clearance. You will produce high and low level security architecture documentation, guiding and validating designs for systems deployed within sensitive environments. The role requires providing specialist security input into solution design, service transition and change initiatives, working closely with engineering, operations, client and third party stakeholders. You must have current hands on architectural experience, including VMware secure platform design and virtualisation architecture, alongside AWS expertise. This is an outside IR35 contract- 6 month rolling. Part of a longer term MoD project
-
- Active Directory | RBA engineer | UK Remote | SC Clearable
- United Kingdom
- N/A
-
Technical Active Directory (AD) and RBA specialist needed to play a key part in complex, enterprise scale Active Directory and access transformation programmes. You will work alongside senior team, helping reshape access models, modernise legacy directory structures and strengthen security posture across secure environments. This is hands on delivery within high impact projects where your work directly improves access control, compliance and operational resilience. Active UK Security Clearance required. This is a remote role with client travel. Implementation of Role Based Access Control across large AD estates Restructuring complex permission models, security groups and delegated access Supporting domain controller upgrades and core directory improvements Applying security hardening standards and remediating audit findings Enhancing authentication, policy and access governance frameworks Troubleshooting and resolving technical AD challenges within live environments Producing robust technical documentation and identifying project risks You must have the following technical experience Enterprise Active Directory administration Role Based Access and permission remediation OU design and governance Group Policy management Security group delegation models DNS and DHCP services Kerberos authentication / NTLM PowerShell scripting and automation Azure AD | Entra ID Hybrid identity environments Identity Governance PAM
-
- Identity and Access Management Consultant (Saviynt & Microsoft Entra) | UK
- United Kingdom
- N/A
-
Role summary Technical IAM consultant delivering identity governance and cloud identity solutions to enterprise clients. What you will do Implement / Configure / Deploy Saviynt IGA / Microsoft Entra solutions: Lead technical workshops, gather requirements and translate into solution designs. Troubleshoot complex issues, support testing and deployments. Produce technical artefacts and configuration guides. Key skills Hands-on Saviynt IGA experience (workflow, connectors, access governance). Strong practical knowledge of Microsoft Entra ID / Azure AD identity and access controls. Understanding of identity protocols (SAML, OAuth, OpenID Connect) and hybrid identity. Experience with APIs / REST for integrations and automation. What we are looking for Proven delivery experience in IAM / IGA projects, preferably in consulting. Confident communicator with client-facing delivery exposure.