A new survey has exposed gaps in corporate efforts to improve business resilience from cyber risks, with about two-thirds (63%) of C-suite executives admitting that significant cyberattacks occur daily or weekly.
Of the 959 C-suite executives surveyed, just 25% of respondents said their organisations always consider security measures in the design of their technology and operating models to make them more resilient.
88% of respondents believe their cyber defence strategy is robust, understood and fully functional, while 86% measure their company’s resilience to identify what enhancements are required.
According to the survey, only 9% of executives said their company proactively runs inward-directed attacks and intentional failures to test their systems continuously, while 53% said their firm has a continuity plan that they refresh as required.
However, security still does not have a significant recognition in the IT sector with only 49% of executives prioritising security, as well as operational and failure scenarios.
According to the survey, 45% have generated threat models to existing and proposed business operations to allow quick responses to an attack or system failure.
Just 38% of executives said their companies had thoroughly documented the relationships between their technology and operational assets to find resilience concerns and dependencies in their organisation.
The Accenture report noted that successful enterprises recognise that responsibility for resilience and agility does not just fall to the CIO, chief information security officer (CISO) or chief risk officer. It must also include the senior management team.
Accenture Technology Strategy managing director Brian Walker said: "To enable and protect the company, CEOs should work closely with their CIO, CISO and others across their leadership team as well as their board of directors, to make decisions about investments, and advance their business continuity efforts.
"They cannot prevent an attack or failure, but they can mitigate the damage it can cause by taking steps to make their business more resilient, agile and fault-tolerant."
