US Businesses Boost Cyber Security Investment After Recent Attacks

Some 60 per cent of US businesses increased their cyber security budgets following a spree of prominent attacks in December and January, according to BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. The wave of attacks influenced 78 per cent of those planning to increase their security budgets in the following 12 months.

About 53 per cent of surveyed companies now recognize cyber security threats as a top three business risk.

The research reveals that US businesses have grown more aware of cyber threats. “However, digital crime as a whole – a dangerous combination of organized groups of criminals using cyber techniques to carry out financial crime – is also a major concern, particularly since the most recent wave of high-profile attacks,” said Martin Sutherland, Managing Director at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.

“And as the number of avenues open to criminals in a hyper-connected world increases, we are seeing a genuine hunger from businesses for a clearer understanding of their own vulnerabilities and up to the minute cyber threat intelligence.”

Loss of customer data and intellectual property theft are main concerns for 61 per cent and 47 per cent, respectively, of respondents.

“To adapt to the ever evolving threat landscape, companies will also need to develop holistic threat intelligence management programs supported by security platforms that not only provide the raw intelligence data but also the ability to process and analyze large amounts of complicated information as quickly and clearly as possible,” Sutherland says.