Most network outages exceed $1 million in damages

Infoblox unveils research into the foundational infrastructure challenges faced by networking and security decision-makers in the US government.

The report reveals a disruptive year of workforce transformation forced by the COVID-19 shutdowns during which respondents also handled expensive fallouts from network outages and data breaches.

Key findings

• Cybersecurity breaches inflict multi-million dollar pain on government organizations: 81% of respondents estimated data breaches have cost their organizations at least $1 million.
• The majority of network outages exceeds $1 million in damages: 60% of network outages cost at least $1 million in operational disruptions, reputational damage, lost data, and financial losses.
• Networking and security challenges are inter-connected: 40% said preventing network outages was their top cybersecurity challenge, edging out the hiring and retention of qualified IT staff and securing cloud application data (38% each). Respondents rated network monitoring (73%) and threat intelligence (66%) as the most effective technologies for mitigating these challenges.
• Cloud networking attacks are rising: 84% of respondents experienced one or more cloud networking attacks in the last 12 months.
• As cyber attacks escalate, security budgets continue to grow: 67% of respondents’ budgets grew from 2019 to 2020 and 73% estimate an increase from 2020 to 2021.

Costs of network outages extend beyond direct financial damages

Respondents also indicated that the costs of network outages extend far beyond direct financial damages. They cited concerns over lost productivity, reputational damage, loss of intellectual property, breach notification processing, and legal ramifications as unpleasant consequences to prevent.

“The COVID-19 shutdowns strained government IT resources as teams were time-pressed to secure remote workers while building out the infrastructure,” says Allen McNaughton, Director of Sales Engineering, Infoblox Public Sector.

“As the cascading SolarWinds breach reminds us, the US government faces well-resourced attackers capable of finding and exploiting unexpected gaps. Government IT teams have the tough job of building out cloud infrastructure while defending it and legacy systems, which raises the stakes.”

“Fortunately, government IT teams are prioritizing network visibility and security investments to directly address their areas of top concern.”

from Help Net Security https://ift.tt/3aehcMa

Related Items