For expertise leaders to take cybersecurity critically is a double-edged sword. While it is undoubtedly a very good factor that organizations are beginning to get up to the true menace posed by cyber-attacks, it is no secret that they need to suck up so many sources to guard themselves as a substitute of utilizing them to develop and innovate. is miserable.
A latest survey of UK expertise leaders carried out by UK IT Leaders and Horizon CIO Network discovered that over half of these surveyed mentioned cybersecurity was their high precedence in 2024. It turned clear. Again, that is each good and dangerous. The cyber menace panorama is as harmful as ever, and it is reassuring that expertise leaders acknowledge this. However, this doesn’t bode nicely for the UK financial system as an entire.
In this text, we discover what different priorities UK expertise leaders have, why cybersecurity is a precedence, and the broader implications this may have.
What are the priorities for UK expertise leaders in 2024?
Among the 314 IT leaders surveyed, essentially the most often cited priorities had been:
Cybersecurity – 58% Digital Transformation – 48% AI and Generative AI – 43% Digital Strategy – 40% Target Operating Model – 27% Data Management – 26% Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Platform Upgrade or Implementation – 26%
Why is cybersecurity a precedence for UK expertise leaders?
At first look, the reply to this query is straightforward. Cybersecurity is a high precedence for UK expertise leaders as cyber-attacks develop into a extra important menace than in earlier years. But why?
geopolitical tensions
Conflict intensifies between Israel and Gaza. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to tug on. Civil conflict hits Sudan. The geopolitical scenario hasn’t been this tense because the Cold War, and IT leaders comprehend it. In reality, the extra conflicts there are on this planet, the upper the incidence of cyberattacks. Whether menace actors launch assaults to spy on adversaries, destroy essential infrastructure, or generate profits in economies shattered by protracted wars, extra battle at all times means extra cybercrime. To do.
upcoming elections
More than two billion individuals shall be eligible to go to the polls this yr, a lot of them within the UK. Elections are a harmful time for all organizations, not simply political ones, as person information is effective to actors attempting to affect the end result. And this isn’t a speculation. In 2016, Cambridge Analytica misused private information to affect the US normal election. Cybercriminals themselves might not search to affect elections, however they’ll promote probably costly information and launch additional assaults to take action.
recession
The British financial system is in dangerous form. The nation has been in recession because the finish of 2023, and its persons are going through a value of residing disaster, with people and organizations alike feeling the pinch. It’s no secret that financial downturns breed cybercrime, and after the 2008 monetary disaster, the FBI reported that cybercrime elevated by 22.3%. Encouragingly, expertise leaders are getting ready for this.
A.I.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been dominating expertise headlines recently. From wild hypothesis about its implications to unusual succession dramas to unprecedented worldwide cooperation, AI is already having a profound influence on our world. Cybercrime can be intensifying. His latest NCSC report discovered that AI “will nearly definitely enhance the amount and influence of cyberattacks over the subsequent two years,” and IT leaders are clever about this.
What does it imply for UK expertise leaders to prioritize cybersecurity?
As we have made clear, it is usually a very good factor that expertise leaders are prioritizing cybersecurity. The frequency and severity of threats will enhance all through 2024, so the UK must be ready. But trying on the greater image reveals a miserable actuality.
Think of your group and the cybercriminals attacking it as warring nations. Naturally, nations at conflict spend extra on protection. This enhance in protection spending is the precise choice as a result of in any other case the nation shall be susceptible. But extra spending on protection means much less cash out there to enhance the nation. Spending on efforts to spice up the financial system or take care of the susceptible shortly falls by the wayside. The identical goes for organizations. The extra you spend on cybersecurity, the much less you spend on enhancing your small business. This subject is of explicit concern to UK companies.
As we now have beforehand lined, the UK financial system is in a reasonably poor state, particularly in comparison with the remainder of Europe, making it extra necessary than ever for UK companies to take a position money and time in innovation and progress. I’m. If you focus an excessive amount of on cybersecurity, you will not be capable of do this. Prioritizing cybersecurity is a needed evil, however an evil nonetheless.
Importantly, whereas it’s encouraging to see that UK expertise leaders are prioritizing cybersecurity, we shouldn’t be fooled into pondering this can be a reassuring statistic. This simply reveals how robust a yr 2024 goes to be.