1 in 4 ANZ orgs have covered up a cyber attack

One in four cybersecurity decision-makers from Australia and New Zealand admit that their organisation has knowingly concealed a cyber attack to prevent reputational damage, according to new research from Arctic Wolf.

The cybersecurity operations company, which recently expanded into Australia and New Zealand, has published the results of a survey of 300 cybersecurity and IT decision-makers from the two markets.

According to the findings, 25% of respondents had cut IT or security headcount in the last year, with 15% also expecting layoffs in 2023. In addition, 16% of respondents have no form of 24x7 security monitoring in place and 23% have no single person dedicated to cybersecurity full time.

Despite this, security budgets are poised to increase for 62% of organisations. In addition, 88% of respondents report being confident in their ability to defend against attacks.

The survey also found that while 57% of respondents claim that they would never pay a ransom to resume business operations, 35% admit that they would be willing to pay a five-figure ransom to do so.

Arctic Wolf Regional Director for Australia and New Zealand David Hayes said the findings are a mixed bag.

“While many cybersecurity leaders in Australia and New Zealand are confident in their ability to defend their business from cyber threats, the fact that over two-thirds of companies claim to have experienced a major cybersecurity incident last year highlights that many organisations are still ill-prepared to protect their businesses against both sophisticated and commodity attacks,” he said.

“The best way for organisations to break out of this cycle of fear and uncertainty is for them to recognise that they don’t have a tools problem, but an operational one, and embrace security operations to address the ANZ region’s evolving threat landscape and end cyber risk.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Tero Vesalainen