Business security leaders fear loss of cyber war: IBM

Business security leaders are becoming increasingly concerned about losing the battle against cyber criminals, according to the latest Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) study released today by IBM.

More than 80 percent of security leaders believe the challenges posed to their organizations by external cyber threats are on the rise, while 60 percent feel as though their organizations are outgunned in the supposed cyber war.

Which means going forward into the next year and beyond, organizations will need to shift more resources and attention toward mitigating the risks and losses surrounding sophisticated external threats - as much as what's put toward regulations, new technologies and internal threats, combined.

And while most organizations have made gains in securing themselves in the cloud, mobile security remains dangerously lax, with more than half of study participants admitting that they don't have an effective MDM approach in place in their organizations.

If there's one sliver lining for today's CISOs, however, it's that they've become more integral figures and powerful decision makers within their organizations, the study revealed.

"CISOs are finally getting a seat in the boardroom," said Brendan Hannigan, GM of IBM Security, in a statement. "Security leaders must now use this growing influence to deliver better results: prioritizing the protection of critical assets, focusing investments on intelligence and recruiting top industry talent to augment internal efforts."