Almost half of businesses believe cloud apps make them a target for cyber-attacks, according to a survey of 1,050 IT decision makers who participated in Thales’ 2019 Access Management Index.
The report found that 49% of organizations admitted that cloud apps are likely one of the top three reasons their organization might be attacked. Cloud apps followed behind unprotected infrastructure such as IoT devices (54%) and web portals (50%), according to the study.
Across the globe, 75% of IT decision makers said they rely on access management to secure user logins for those employees who externally connect to online corporate resources. However, organizations in the UK are far less likely than the rest of the world (56%) to allow employees to log on to corporate resources using their social media credentials. Only 29% of UK companies allow employees to use social media credentials to log in, almost half by comparison.
Companies around the globe are looking to address cybersecurity issues by hiring strong leadership. In fact, the study found that four in 10 (38%) companies have appointed a CISO due to concerns over the number of breaches occurring in the last 12 months.
“While the UK has been slower to react to the rising number of data breaches by appointing a dedicated CISO, positively it’s ahead of the global average when it comes to using its expertise in the right places,” said Jason Hart, cybersecurity expert at Thales.
Businesses in the UK (19%) are slightly ahead of global organizations (14%) when it comes to empowering the CISO to make final decisions over cloud access management. “Giving CISOs the final decision on cloud access management is the most logical thing because they have the situational awareness to understand the risks facing the business and how to stop it. Many other countries worldwide are falling short of the mark here and leaving themselves exposed in the long run,” Hart said.
In the UK, organizations (63%) are more focused on the potential vulnerabilities posed by unsecured infrastructure than their global counterparts (54%). In fact, 55% of UK businesses would prefer a smart single sign-on (SSO) solution for those accessing the network.