CyberEdge Group has been conducting yearly surveys to IT security professionals all over the world. The latest one – 2021 Cyberthreat Defense Report – is a comprehensive review of the perceptions of 1,200 IT security professionals representing 17 countries and 19 industries.

The report has become a staple among security leaders and practitioners, helping them gauge their internal practices and security investments against those of their peers across different countries and industries.

Here are the key insights from the 2021 report:

• A record 86% of organizations suffered from a successful cyberattack last year
• A record 69% of organizations were compromised by ransomware
• 57% of ransomware victims paid ransoms last year, but one-quarter (28%) of them failed to recover their data
• Low employee awareness and lack of skilled personnel inhibit IT security’s success
• 87% of organizations are experiencing a shortfall of skilled IT security personnel
• The typical enterprise IT security budget increased 4% last year, but the rate of budget growth slowed for the first time in years
• Four out of five respondents prefer security products that feature machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology
• The percentage of IT security applications and services are delivered from the cloud climbed from 36% to 41%

The report can be downloaded from the ISC2 site: https://www.isc2.org/-/media/ISC2/Research/Cyberthreat-Defense-Report/2021/CyberEdge-2021-CDR-Report-v10–ISC2-Edition.ashx

Source: 2021 Cyberthreat Defense Report, CyberEdge Group, LLC.