New research shows 1 in 3 organisations were unable to detect a breach in the last 12 months, with just 25 percent able to respond in real time
Gigamon, a leader in deep observability, has published its 2024 Hybrid Cloud Security Survey, revealing that organisations around the world are still unprepared for modern, sophisticated cyberthreats.
The annual survey of over 1,000 Security and IT leaders across Australia, France, Germany, Singapore, UK and the USA, shows a decline in detection and response capabilities year-on-year compared to the company’s 2023 Hybrid Cloud Security Report.
As hybrid cloud environments grow in complexity and bad actors launch a barrage of unseen attacks, 65 percent of global respondents believe that their existing solutions cannot effectively detect breaches.
In Australia, 50 percent of respondents noted that they were only able to detect a data breach when users were unable to access applications and digital resources.
Security and IT leaders are at a crucial juncture. Some 83 percent of respondents believe that cloud complexity is increasing their cyber risk, and the spectre of AI-powered attacks looms globally.
Eight in 10 respondents predict that AI will increase the global ransomware threat. And yet,despite global information security spending projected to reach $215 billion in 2024, only 54 percent of organisations feel “strongly prepared” to respond to unauthorised access in hybrid cloud environments.
Organisations are unprepared for attacks
In Australia, 76 percent of respondents have experienced a data breach in the past, slightly higher than the global average of 73 percent. Survey respondents also generally acknowledge weaknesses in their threat detection tools.
Just 1 in 4 were able to remediate a live threat in a recent breach – while this rises to 30 percent in Germany, it falls to just one-fifth in Australia and Singapore.
When tooling fails, organisations suffer more serious consequences:
- 31 percent of organisations only detected a recent breach when they received an extortion threat from the adversary.
- 31 percent became aware only once proprietary information leaked onto the dark web. This is much lower in France and the UK (around 1 in 5) but hits a concerning 42 percent among Australian respondents
- 25 percent of respondents failed to determine the root of the breach, increasing to one-third of Australian, Singaporean, and US respondents
Critical visibility gaps
Complex hybrid cloud infrastructure contributes to organisations’ lack of control. Despite 85 percent describing cloud security as a boardroom priority, hybrid cloud visibility continues to be an issue.
- Three-quarters of respondents agree that East-West (lateral) visibility is more important to cloud security than North-South, yet just 40 percent have visibility into East-West traffic, down from 48 percent in 2023
- Lateral visibility is lowest in the UK (30 percent), while almost half report visibility in Australia and Singapore
- Encryption poses another serious blind spot: despite researchers suggesting that 93 percent of malware attacks hide in encrypted traffic, a shocking 76 percent of Gigamon respondents currently trust that encrypted traffic is secure
Deep observability is viewed as central to modern IT success
When breaches are missed, tool strategies are firmly in the spotlight. More than 80 percent agree that achieving unified visibility into hybrid cloud infrastructure – delivering network-derived intelligence to log-based security tooling – is key to preventing attacks.
Six in 10 believe that greater visibility into all data in motion will empower them to securely deploy AI technology. As a result, 80 percent agree that deep observability is a board-level priority.
Security and IT leaders agree that deep observability is foundational to secure and efficient AI deployments. In addition, 84 percent of Australian respondents believe in the strong connection between deep observability and Zero Trust implementation.
As organisations face a regulatory environment that emphasises board-level accountability for security posture, cloud security efforts are rising up the C-suite. In Australia, 89 percent of respondents believe that cloud security is a priority for the board.
“Cyber risk is firmly in the spotlight this year, with governments and boardrooms finally recognising its place at the very top of the business risk register. And yet cybercriminals are evading detection over a third of the time,” said Mark Jow, EMEA Technical Evangelist at Gigamon.
“Today’s MELT- based (Metrics, Events, Logs, and Traces) approaches are no longer enough, as organisations need 360-degree visibility across the hybrid cloud,”
“Whether organisations are fending off AI-powered attacks, integrating AI powered solutions into hybrid cloud environments, or seeking to establish Zero Trust, deep observability is fundamental to success.” he said
CISOs bear the brunt
The survey also delves into the insights of 234 CISOs globally. The results highlight that CISOs continue to bear the burden of regulatory and technological pressures, with 59 percent reporting that they would be most empowered by cyber risk becoming a board priority.
Some 69 percent report they struggle to detect encrypted threats, compared to 59 percent of the total respondents, and an alarming seven in 10 of CISOs believe their tools aren’t as effective as they could be in detecting breaches.
Detection is not their only concern: three-quarters of CISOs report their security teams being overwhelmed by sprawling tool stacks, 11% higher than their C-Suite colleagues
“It is clear for CISOs that organisations’ tool stacks are falling short,” said Chaim Mazal, CSO at Gigamon. “Security leaders are under pressure from governments to reduce cyber risk,”
“But without real-time, network-derived intelligence and insights into all data in motion, including East-West and encrypted traffic, bad actors will continue to wreak havoc, now with AI accelerating their efforts.” Chaim said.
About the survey
The 2024 Hybrid Cloud Security Survey was commissioned by Gigamon and fielded in collaboration with Vitreous World. The data is based on findings of an online survey of 1,033 global respondents Mar. 22- Apr. 6, 2024.
