While large enterprises are highly confident in their cybersecurity defenses, a new (ISC)² study suggests they need to be more diligent in a couple of areas – taking action when told about security vulnerabilities and removing privileges for users who no longer need access to systems. The (ISC)² Securing the Partner Ecosystem study polled respondents from both small businesses and large enterprises. Asked if they’ve alerted enterprise clients to security vulnerabilities they’ve discovered on the enterprise’s systems, 53% of small business respondents said yes. Yet, 35% of large enterprise respondents said nothing is done about these alerts. In response to a question about access to enterprise partner systems, 55% of small business participants said they’ve found they still have access

Parents can play an influential role in their children’s choice of careers but when it comes to cybersecurity, most parents have no advice to give. That’s because they really don’t know much, if anything, about the subject. A survey by cybersecurity training provider SANS Institute revealed that 63% of parents in the U.K. can’t answer questions about how to find a job in the cybersecurity field. Almost as many parents (61%) said they have little or no knowledge of any career opportunities in the industry, even though 91% said they have heard of cybersecurity. And despite the high earning potential of cybersecurity careers, 72% of parents said they’ve never considered a career in the field for their children. This lack of

A severe cybersecurity skills gap in EMEA (European, Middle East and Africa) is making it hard for cybersecurity staff to cope with their workloads or acquire the skills they need to handle emerging technologies, according to a new report by Symantec. Cybersecurity workers believe they are at a serious disadvantage against attackers. Simply finding the time to learn emerging technologies, such as those related to mobility and cloud, is a challenge for a workforce whose experience as a group ranges from 10 to 30 years, the report says. “Declining skills are highly problematic for cyber security professionals, who are effectively in an arms race, in which talent and skill are their most important weapons. Unfortunately, enterprises feel they are falling

A new (ISC)2 study suggests that small businesses may get too much attribution for causing security breaches for their large enterprise clients. While it’s true that enterprises have suffered breaches caused by third parties, they are more likely a result of actions by a large partner, not a small business. The Securing the Partner Ecosystem study, which polled respondents both at large enterprises and small businesses, revealed about one third of enterprises (32%) have experienced a breach caused by a third party, but in these cases, large partners are more likely to blame (54%) than small business partners (46%). Only 19% of small business respondents overall say they’ve caused a data breach for an enterprise client or partner. As a

While C-level executives understand the need for cybersecurity as their organizations undergo digital transformation, they aren’t prioritizing it enough, according to a recent Deloitte report based on a survey of 500 executives. The report, “The Future of Cyber Survey 2019,” reveals a disconnect between organizational aspirations for a “cyber everywhere” future and their actual cyber posture. One area where this is evident is in budgeting, with organizations allocating only 14% of their digital transformation budgets to cybersecurity. Further evidence is how often cyber appears on the agendas of company board meetings. Cybersecurity makes it to the agenda of 49% of organizations at least quarterly, which is a positive sign, but it also means the remaining 51% of organizations address it