Industry specific results
Professional and scientific services
Financial and insurance services
Healthcare and social assistance
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Public sector
Federal, state, and local governments experienced unprecedented levels of cyber threat activity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With more suspected nation-state cyber attacks than ever before, our public sector respondents provided some unique insights about their cyber incidents, challenges and investments.
The public sector plays a critical role in safeguarding our country’s interests, so the need for these organisations to understand the scale, source and likelihood of cyber threats they face is vital.
Incidents
Top 5 controls
Cyber preparedness for COVID-19
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Professional and scientific services
Cyber preparedness is one of the best forms of defence, but knowing what to prepare for can be a challenge. Despite most professional and scientific organisation respondents claiming they were equipped with secure remote working systems leading into COVID-19, this sector experienced the highest level of incidents in 2020 which suggests they are less prepared to tackle cyber threats in 2020 than in previous years.
Incidents
Top 5 controls
Cyber preparedness for COVID-19
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Financial and insurance services
Given the nature of what they do and the data they hold, financial and insurance services organisations have traditionally defended against cyber risk, so it is little surprise this industry was the most prepared with secure remote working technologies leading into COVID-19. Despite this, the sector reported a significant drop in investments in cloud security standards, incident response teams and cyber risk reporting to Boards in 2020.
This could be partly attributable to executive confidence, instilled by the sector’s strong history of cyber resilience, as focus shifted to other business priorities. Regardless, respondents in this sector faced a surge of phishing attacks, far outpacing what they expected for the year.
Incidents
Top 5 controls
Cyber preparedness for COVID-19
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Healthcare and social assistance
Unfortunately, hospitals and health systems have been one of the most highly targeted organisations by hackers for many years. During COVID-19, preserving these services' effectiveness and efficiency became paramount to the safety of billions of people across the globe. As health systems struggled to meet the increased demands placed by COVID-19, they also experienced more phishing attacks than any other key sector we surveyed.
Encouragingly, the healthcare sector remained keenly aware of the compounding risk of cyber disruptions, with respondents indicating a large increase investment in cloud security standards and security operations centres to ease the risk of disruption.
Incidents
Top 5 controls
Cyber preparedness for COVID-19
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Education
The education sector is facing new threats and decision makers in the sector are realising the value of the data they hold in the face of emerging foreign interference. Recognition of the importance of our country’s research and development efforts’ to national stability makes the sector an even more enticing target for cyber threat actors.
Worrying, our survey data suggests education sector respondents may be misinterpreting their threat landscape, directing investment away from areas that need attention such as data loss prevention. Many are making significant efforts to uplift cyber resilience, which is a step in the right direction.
Incidents
Top 5 controls
Cyber preparedness for COVID-19
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All respondents
2020 was a year of unprecedented change. While this ushered in significant opportunities through the use of technology, it also introduced an equally staggering degree of risk.
Respondents’ collective overconfidence in their cyber controls were tested in 2020, and in many cases, they experienced a cyber incident. Data breaches doubled, and adversaries are now more sophisticated than we have ever seen.
In the face of this challenge respondents directed more investment into managing these risks than ever before. They rose to meet the challenges and appear determined to capitalise on the opportunities afforded by such widespread change.
Incidents
Top 5 controls
Cyber preparedness for COVID-19
DOWNLOAD 2020 REPORT