• by Ray Schultz , February 28, 2018

Over 80% of companies have inadequate IT security budgets or none at all. And over 50% say they have been breached, according to a study by security firm Cygilant.

Moreover, only 16.6 are very confident that they can protect customer data. Their top challenges, cited by 68%, are lack of time and budget.

These findings are consistent with those of previous studies.

“The results from our new survey haven’t changed dramatically from last year,” states Neil Weitzel, director of security research, Cygilant. “Companies are still understaffing and underfunding cybersecurity initiatives and aren’t providing the ongoing security awareness training to employees which is required to protect against relentless attacks by adversaries.”

The study also found:

• 14.9% are confident in their current cybersecurity technologies
• 24.7% rate phishing/spam as a top-five concern. But they have no employee awareness programs
• 46% review their cybersecurity programs with their boards of directors once a year or less
• 74% have five or less full-time IT security staffers.
• 63% conduct cybersecurity awareness training once a year or less.