67% of organisations say they're understaffed to handle cybersecurity

There is almost no question that cybercrime is growing in sophistication and distribution every year.

For instance, you can go straight to the horse's mouth with nearly 90 percent of all information security leaders revealing they're concerned with the rise of digital threats they are facing across web, social, and mobile channels.

RiskIQ recently released the results of its 2018 CISO Survey of some 1,691 US and UK information security leaders across multiple verticals, including enterprise, consulting, government and education – with the goal to garner insights into their cyber risk concerns and plans for the year ahead.

And what is concerning is the results painted a pretty grim picture, with RiskIQ forecasting a 'perfect storm' where the problem of staff shortages collides with escalating cybercrime.

This is effectively leaving organisations ill-equipped to manage and respond to cyber risks and threats that are clearly becoming more prominent in the era of digital transformation, pervasive connections and increasingly sophisticated attack strategies sponsored by nation-states and rogue actors.

"The RiskIQ 2018 CISO Survey illuminates a growing industry-wide problem, which is that cybercrime is growing at scale, and enterprises are already experiencing critical staff shortages," says RiskIQ CEO Lou Manousos.

"That's one reason 1 in 3 organisations have engaged with an MSSP to combat cyber risks and threats, and we expect that number to grow as the competition for top security talent gets far more intense.

As aforementioned, the findings from the survey are quite grim but RiskIQ says this is hardly surprising given the Spectre and Meltdown security flaws in Intel chips that dominated the news in early 2018, as well as the major security breach announcements from companies like Equifax, Yahoo, and Anthem.

• 67 percent of cybersecurity leaders do not have sufficient staff to handle the daily barrage of cyber alerts they receive
• 60 percent expect digital threats to grow as their organisations increase online engagement with customers
• The top three digital threats information security leaders fear are phishing and malware attacks on employees and customers; brand impersonation, abuse, and reputational damage; and information breaches
• The top risk organisations face today is a lack of experienced staff to monitor and help protect networks from cybercrime
• Currently, 37 percent of firms have engaged a managed security services provider (MSSP) to help monitor and manage cyber threats