Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
Large organizations are increasing their cyber maturity despite global cyber skills shortages. The Cyber Benchmark 2024 report by Wavestone shows that companies with over $1 billion in revenues are investing in cybersecurity, with one cyber expert per 1086 employees on average. Cyber budgets represent 6.6% of the IT budget, with the financial sector leading in cyber expertise. While larger organizations are outpacing smaller ones in cybersecurity basics, progress has been made in cloud security and data security. Areas of improvement include third-party security and industrial systems.
Article:
Large organizations are mastering cyber maturity, even amidst global cyber skills shortages. The Cyber Benchmark 2024 report by Wavestone reveals that companies with revenues exceeding $1 billion are strengthening their cybersecurity defenses. The report indicates that, on average, these organizations have one cyber expert per 1086 employees, representing a 15% increase from 2023 where the ratio was one cyber expert per 1285 employees. The financial sector leads in cyber expertise, with one cyber expert per 267 employees.
The research also highlights that many companies are launching initiatives aimed at talent retention to address the current shortfall of about 4 million cybersecurity specialists worldwide. The majority of professionals (92%) report a skills shortage in their organizations, emphasizing the importance of retaining cyber expertise.
Cyber budgets now account for 6.6% of the IT budget across all sectors, with larger organizations showing slightly higher levels of cyber maturity compared to smaller organizations. This validates the efforts made by larger groups in terms of budgets and talent attraction. While smaller companies (those with less than $1 billion in sales) remain fragile to ransomware risks, larger organizations are making progress in cybersecurity basics.
Areas of improvement in cybersecurity include a 5% increase in cloud security, driven by advances in platform administration security. However, the transition to multicloud environments may introduce complexity to cloud security efforts. Data security has also improved by 4%, linked to advancements in AI. The report highlights outstanding areas of cybersecurity, such as third-party security and industrial systems, which show room for improvement.
