Over Two-Thirds of US Companies Plan to Spend More On Security, CFOs Say

Some 69% of US companies have increased investments in data security in the past year, while 92% have a formal data security plan, according to the 2015 CFO Outlook annual Pulse, a survey by Bank of America.

The top five strategic activities of CFOs, beyond the finance role, are technological advances (61%), risk management (60%), data management (59%), human resource issues (49%) and communications strategies (40%), respondents say.

More than 80% of the respondents say they are spending more time on planning disaster recovery, fraud and operational risks, study shows.

Some 23% of US companies have suffered a security breach in the past 12 months, according to HOTforSecurity. Two thirds of CFOs make cybersecurity a high or very high priority, while 71% have increased involvement in IT in the last three years.

CFOs and CIOs are becoming increasingly connected, with 61% of CFOs saying their collaboration with the CIO has increased. CFOs’ insufficient understanding of IT issues is the main barrier in their relationship with CIOs, and financial executives say they add most value by managing costs and profitability.

Organizations need to spend less on operations and maintenance, and more on investigation and innovation, according to a report by accountancy firm EY. Currently, only 14% of cybersecurity spending goes toward security innovation, despite the constant change of cybercriminals’ methods to take advantage of new technologies and new weaknesses in corporations.

The 2015 CFO Outlook conducted 602 interviews with US financial executives woking in companies with +$25 million sales.