February 6, 2017 By Mark Samuels 2 min read

Organizations primarily fear potential reputational and brand damage rather than a security breach itself. Still, many businesses lack a risk management strategy to abate those fears.

According to a Ponemon Institute survey sponsored by RiskVision, 76 percent of businesses lack a holistic approach to risk. The report also suggested that organizations are concerned about the long-term brand damage that results from a breach.

Negative Headlines Keep Executives Awake

Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, said the results of the survey highlight organizations’ growing desire to understand their risk exposure. The requirement to comprehend risk, he said, has been prompted by an increasing number of high-profile data incidents and the resultant negative headlines.

While security incidents are expensive to remediate, the costs associated with reputational damage can be even greater. That explains why 63 percent of executives are primarily concerned about negative brand impact, while 51 percent are more worried about a security breach, according to the report.

Survey respondents were also notably concerned about business disruption (51 percent) and intellectual property loss (37 percent).

A Disconnect Between Theory and Practice

The research highlighted how growing fears around brand reputation and security breaches are helping to create a new executive-level focus on risk. As many as 82 percent of organizations indicated that risk management is now either a “significant” or “very significant” commitment.

However, a maturing risk program is no guarantee of success. The survey illustrated a separation between the theory of risk management strategy and on-the-ground implementation: Just 14 percent of executives indicated that their business have an effective risk management strategy.

Furthermore, 52 percent of organizations do not have a formal budget for enterprise risk management. This lack of resources is a significant impediment to controlling risk, according to 44 percent of respondents. The same number cited complexity as a challenge in this area, while 43 percent struggled to get started.

Senior Executives Must Take Risk Management Seriously

Joe Fantuzzi, CEO of RiskVision, said organizations must start to invest in risk measurement and analysis. He noted that more than two-thirds of business do not rate assets based on criticality or use metrics to assess risk management effectiveness.

The good news, according to Dark Reading, is that executives are waking up to the need for effective measurement. Just 21 percent of companies analyzed risk in real-time 18 months ago. Today, that figure stands at 32 percent. Gartner also noted an increased demand for risk management technologies.

Executives are increasingly waking up to the importance of a risk management strategy, but they must ensure their approach is more than simple lip service. Business leaders should create an all-encompassing strategy that focuses on measurement and action.

More from

How will the Merck settlement affect the insurance industry?

3 min read - A major shift in how cyber insurance works started with an attack on the pharmaceutical giant Merck. Or did it start somewhere else?In June 2017, the NotPetya incident hit some 40,000 Merck computers, destroying data and forcing a months-long recovery process. The attack affected thousands of multinational companies, including Mondelēz and Maersk. In total, the malware caused roughly $10 billion in damage.NotPetya malware exploited two Windows vulnerabilities: EternalBlue, a digital skeleton key leaked from the NSA, and Mimikatz, an exploit…

3 Strategies to overcome data security challenges in 2024

3 min read - There are over 17 billion internet-connected devices in the world — and experts expect that number will surge to almost 30 billion by 2030.This rapidly growing digital ecosystem makes it increasingly challenging to protect people’s privacy. Attackers only need to be right once to seize databases of personally identifiable information (PII), including payment card information, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers.In addition to the ever-present cybersecurity threats, data security teams must consider the growing list of data compliance laws…

ICS CERT predictions for 2024: What you need to know

4 min read - As we work through the first quarter of 2024, various sectors are continuously adapting to increasingly complex cybersecurity threats. Sectors like healthcare, finance, energy and transportation are all regularly widening their digital infrastructure, resulting in larger attack surfaces and greater risk exposure.Kaspersky just released their ICS CERT Predictions for this year, outlining the key cybersecurity challenges industrial enterprises will face in the year ahead. The forecasts emphasize the persistent nature of ransomware threats, the increasing prevalence of cosmopolitical hacktivism, insights…

Topic updates

Get email updates and stay ahead of the latest threats to the security landscape, thought leadership and research.
Subscribe today