Network Event Response: are enterprise leaders ready?

Arbor Networks, Inc., a vendor of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) and advanced threat protection solutions for enterprises and operators, today announced the results of a survey supported by it. The survey aims to learn about how organizations are preparing to respond to cyber security incidents, conducted by the economist think tank. The Economist think tank surveyed 360 senior business leaders, most of whom (73%) are Class C management members or board members from around the world, including 31% from North America and 36% from Europe, and 29% are from Asia Pacific.

This article entitled "network event response: are enterprise leaders ready?" According to the report, although 77% of enterprises have encountered network security incidents in the past two years, more than 1/3 (38%) of companies still do not have an incident response plan to respond. Currently, only 17% of enterprises around the world are fully prepared to respond to network security events.

Enterprises with high event response plans and readiness usually rely on the IT department to lead the process, however, most enterprises also use external resources, including IT forensics experts, professional legal advisers, and law enforcement experts.

James Chambers, senior editor of The Economist think tank, said, "The regularization trend of Enterprise cybersecurity preparations is encouraging. However, as the source and influence of threats become more unpredictable, enterprise managers should ensure that network emergency response becomes an instinctive reaction of the Organization, it is not just a plan for temporary access to things ".

Matthew moynahan, president of arbor networks, added: "As these findings show, when network attacks are involved, we should actively prepare for 'when, instead of preparing for a negative response. We can see from the recent highly appealing targeted network attack events in the retail industry that enterprises can quickly identify and classify network security events and execute response plans, it is important not only to protect corporate assets and customer data, but also to protect corporate brands, reputation, and financial bottom line ".

Main survey results:

The level of preparation for organizations is restrained due to lack of understanding about threats.

· Only 17% of business leaders said they felt fully prepared to respond to network security events.

· 41% of business leaders feel that a better understanding of potential threats will help them improve their readiness.

· Preparing a formal plan or setting up an incident response team will have a significant impact on the sense of preparedness of the management.

· Half of enterprises believe that they cannot predict the business impact of a company's vulnerabilities.

Enterprises' emphasis on credibility will promote the formulation of event response plans and processes

· 2/3 of executives said that effective responses to adverse events can improve the company's reputation.

· In the next few years, the percentage of organizations that have established an Incident Response Team and developed an incident response plan will increase to more than 80%.

· Compared with companies that have not encountered network security incidents, companies that have encountered such incidents in the past 24 months are more likely to cooperate with third-party experts to make arrangements.

Companies interviewed still have reserved opinions on disclosure of network security incidents and shared threat intelligence

· If there is no legal requirement, 57% of organizations will not initiate cyber security events.

· Only 1/3 of enterprises share adverse event information with other organizations to provide the best handling methods and evaluate their responses.