As corporations are going digital, cybersecurity has become one of the biggest concerns for the board members. A recent survey conducted by Accenture involving 4644 organizations leading in cybersecurity practices, found that the basic cybersecurity of the organizations has improved. But, with the ever-evolving technology, the attackers have started shifting their targets to weaker spots like vendors and third parties in the supply chain of the organizations.

Although the organizations are investing heavily in cybersecurity, their ROI is lower than expected. One of the main reasons is that cybersecurity tools are not appropriately used and tested in organizations.

The survey revealed that a group of 800 organizations (17% of the total sample) were leaders in maintaining cybersecurity and excelled in fighting cyberattacks successfully. Also, these leaders were better than the remaining organizations and could find and fix breaches faster, stop more attacks and reduce the breach’s impact.

All the leaders who excelled in controlling the cybersecurity had some common characteristics:

• Low conversion of a cyberattack into a breach – The percentage of cyberattacks that resulted in a breach was considerably lower in these leading organizations. It means, 4% were the leaders as compared to 13% in the remaining organizations.
• Faster Detection of Breaches – 88% of leaders were able to detect a breach at a much faster rate (within one day) than the rest of the organizations.
• Quick Remedy – The survey also showed that 96% of the leaders were very quick in fixing the breaches i.e. within 15 days of the hackers breaching the security of the leading organizations.

Now, the question arises as to how the remaining organizations can get improve their capabilities to fight & stop cyberattacks? Well, the answer lies in the survey itself. The survey highlights a few points on how the leaders were able to fight cyberattacks so efficiently.

• Organizations that excel at scaling were better in stopping cyberattacks better – Organizations having a good rate of scaling their investments across their business were better at defending a cyberattack. Only 5% of cyberattacks were converted into a security breach while it was 21% for other organizations. In the organizations that were good at scaling, more than 50% of their cybersecurity tools quickly moved from the pilot phase to full-scale deployment.
• Better Training – The leaders were very prompt in training & upgrading their workforce regarding the adoption of the security tools used to defend cyberattacks. The survey revealed that the organizations which were best at cybersecurity provided training to more than 75% of its users. This resulted in only a 6% conversion of cyberattacks into security breaches. While it was 11% for others.
• Collaborating with third parties – The organizations that collaborated with its vendors, third parties and the end-users for cybersecurity excelled at stopping cyberattacks. So more the collaboration with your vendors, better the security.

Lastly, as technology advances, investment in cybersecurity is a must for companies. But does investing more in cybersecurity mean more protection from cyberthreats? The answer is No. And looking at the rising costs of cybersecurity, it may get difficult to sustain the business if proper measures are not taken to keep a check on the ROI. The boards should take appropriate steps and try to implement the above strategies to excel at preventing cyberattacks.