While 94% of CIOs acknowledged some form of serious threat over the next 12 months, only 27% listed business continuity and resilience as a top-three priority during the next 12 months and barely a third cited risk mitigation as a measure of performance. 

The study which surveyed 1,000 CIOs from around the world, finds that nearly half of respondents (47%) see data breaches as the biggest risk to their organisation (an increase of 6% from last year). Following data breaches, CIOs stated malware and ransomware (39%) as other key areas of concern.

The perceived risk of a data breach is likely to have risen due to the increase in borderless workforces as employees continue to work from home or adopt hybrid working practices. When they occur, data breaches can lead to a range of issues from loss of business-critical data and stalled business growth, and in the most serious cases – the complete shutdown of a business.

However, CIOs still feel their organisations have a long way to go in investing in comprehensive security measures. Despite the rapidly increasing cybersecurity risks, more than half of businesses (55%) have yet to adopt a cyber-attack recovery plan.

Discover how businesses can prepare for the workforce of the future by downloading the Logicalis’ Global CIO Survey 2021-22.