Cybersecurity Management 2014

Nearly half of respondents to a Today’s General Counsel survey regarding trends and attitudes toward cybersecurity felt their industry was very susceptible to security breaches. The larger the department or organization, the higher the percentage of respondents that indicated their industry was very susceptible.

Almost half of respondents reported their organization had experienced a data breach. Asked whether the breach resulted in litigation, more than 80 percent said no. More than 60 percent said they had consulted about cybersecurity with outside consultants.

Asked how familiar they were with the recently published National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework for a cybersecurity infrastructure, about one-third had never heard of it; one-third had heard of it but had not read or reviewed it; and one-third had read it/reviewed it, or were already using or planning to use it.

Experts who commented on this finding note that the NIST framework will soon be the de facto standard for appropriate safeguards when the issue is raised in litigation.

Asked what percentage of the IT budget is devoted to cybersecurity, 44 percent indicated that it was ten percent of the budget or less. Only four percent of respondents said that cybersecurity was 30 percent or more.

Half the respondents said that the CIO is the person to whom the information security function reports. Ten percent said it was the CTO. Only four percent identified the CLO as the head of the information security function.