Kaspersky: More Senior Execs Making Cyber Decisions

PRESS RELEASE

Woburn, MA – November 14, 2019 – A recent Kaspersky study revealed that, in 65% of SMBs and 68% of enterprises, top tier management actively contributes to decisions regarding how their business protects against cyber threats. These statistics support the larger upwards trend of IT security managers being a part of IT decision making discussions. Additionally, C-suite involvement directly correlates to the size of IT security budgets, as companies who invest more heavily in IT security are more likely to have their executives involved in decision making processes.

As seen in Kaspersky’s report, “IT security economics in 2019: how businesses are losing money and saving costs amid cyberattacks,” top management executives must have a better understanding of IT security trends and risks. Alternatively, IT security professionals must be able to effectively communicate cybersecurity risks to a wider range of management executives to allow for better cooperation and a more transparent decision making process.

The survey also reveals that there is a distinct correlation between cybersecurity budgets and top management involvement across organizations of all sizes. For companies with a budget of more than $5m, the majority (72%) have executives take part in the financial aspect of IT security. For companies with smaller budgets, up to $25k for enterprises and up to $2.5k for SMBs, the percentage of those with C-level executives involved in budget decisions is around 50%.

In regards to specific budget size, companies in which C-level executives are involved in cybersecurity decision making are better suited to the global cybersecurity budget pace. In these companies, cybersecurity spending reaches $264k for SMBs and $18m for enterprises. These figures are almost equal to the average spending across all surveyed companies. For SMBs, budgets reached $267k in the present year compared to $256k in 2018, and for enterprises figures reached $18.9m in 2019, up from $8.9m last year.

“Cooperation between IT security teams and the board is beneficial for all businesses. If your company has not yet established this process, now is the right time to get started,” says Alexander Moiseev, chief business officer at Kaspersky.  “IT security teams should go to their top-level management, explain the risks and what they need to mitigate them, how much money they need and how they will spend their budget. This helps executives to understand the importance of IT security for their business and to invest in it according to the real risks.”

To view the full report, “IT security economics in 2019: how businesses are losing money and saving costs amid cyberattacks” please visit Kaspersky Daily.