Numerous industries, including healthcare, could greatly improve their cybersecurity measures through collaboration, according to Guy Delp, director of Cyber and Data Analytics at Lockheed Martin. A recent Lockheed survey showed that the majority of information technology (IT) leaders do not feel confident in their leaderships’ ability to use the necessary intelligence measures to predict and subsequently react to cyber threats.
Moreover, 95 percent of healthcare respondents said it is difficult to communicate cyber threat intelligence to key stakeholders in a timely fashion.
HealthITSecurity.com asked Delp to break down the key takeaways from the survey, and how organizations can best mitigate cyber threats.
HealthITSecurity.com: What are key takeaways of this report that organizations in all sectors should take note of?
Guy Delp: We identified several key takeaways from the Intelligence-Driven Defense survey that all sectors should be aware of, including that many organizations are relying on intuition (35 percent), rather than intelligence, to assess their security levels. Thirty-six percent of respondents said that negligent insiders were the most significant network vulnerability facing their organization and more than half (53 percent) ranked malicious insiders in their top four threats. We also found that the greatest cyber threat lies within the organization. Thirty-six percent of respondents said that negligent insiders and 25 percent said malicious insiders are the greatest areas of cybersecurity risk within their organization.
HITS.com: Why might organizations not feel confident in their cybersecurity measures?
GD: We believe that many organizations don’t feel confident in their cybersecurity measures because they lack the proper funding and staffing to identify and manage attacks. For example, 57 percent of healthcare industry respondents from our survey feared that they don’t have the budget to properly address cyber threats. Fifty-six percent of respondents felt that they didn’t’ have expert personnel. This tells us that organization leaders need to allocate more funding to building up their cybersecurity defense structure and also hire or train additional cyber experts to protect their networks.
HITS.com: In terms of cybersecurity, what are the greatest challenges/barriers for organizations?
GD: Organizations experience several challenges and barriers when trying to achieve a strong cyber defense approach; however, our survey showed the severity (75 percent) and increase of frequency (68 percent) of cyber attacks is a major challenge for organizations. Other respondents identified a lack of vigilance (46 percent) and budget (27 percent) as a barrier in achieving a strong security posture.
HITS.com: How can organizations best mitigate that risk?
GD: As our survey shows, 75 percent of survey participants said that they have seen an increase in the severity of cyberattacks experienced by their organizations and 68 percent said that the attacks are more frequent. I think these statistics completely validate the need for organizations to train and hire more cybersecurity experts to vigilantly monitor the company’s networks. Company leaders should also invest more into the tools needed to keep the company’s sensitive information protected. The damages of a cyberattack are far more devastating and costly than not having a solid cyber defense structure in place.
HITS.com: Are some industries at greater risk than others? Why/why not?
GD: As our survey indicates threats across all industries as well as across the government are on the rise. While the specific goals of each attack may differ depending on the industry, in many cases the techniques used by the adversaries are similar and therefore require a robust defensive posture that relies on collaboration.
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