Over half, 54% of organisations suffered a cyberattack or incident that prevented access to data last year, according to the 2023 Dell Technologies Global Data Protection Index survey of 1,000 IT decision makers, ITDMs and 500 IT security decision makers.
Respondents report that IT disruption is commonplace, with the vast majority, 90% saying their organisations experienced some form of IT disruption in 2023. External security breaches were the most cited, 40% cause of data loss and, or systems downtime within organisations.
Mohamed Talaat, Vice President for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Levant and Turkey at Dell Technologies said, “Organisations and IT decision makers in Saudi Arabia should actively fortify their operations by implementing robust cybersecurity measures. This proactive approach not only guards against potential threats but also ensures that businesses have secure and future proof infrastructure that protects their most valuable asset.”
Over half, 55% of those who experienced a cyberattack event said attackers’ first point of entry was external – users clicking on spam or phishing emails and malicious links, compromised user credentials and hacked mobile devices.
Looking to the implications, respondents said that disruptions that include data loss cost on average US$2.61 million in 2023, accounted for an average of 26 hours of unplanned downtime and resulted in an average of 2.45TB worth of data loss. Costs associated with cyberattacks and related incidents have also doubled, up from US$0.66 million in 2022 to US$1.41 million in 2023.
Generative AI, GenAI is emerging as a strategic tool for bolstering defences, with 52% of those surveyed saying that integrating GenAI will provide an advantage to their organisation’s cybersecurity posture.
However, showing the dual nature of GenAI as both a defensive asset and source of complexity, 88% also agreed that the adoption of GenAI will generate large volumes of new data.
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