Delinea, a leading provider of solutions that extend Privileged Access Management (PAM), conducted an anonymous onsite survey of over 100 cybersecurity professionals to gather insights on their top concerns for cybersecurity in 2023 and their organizations' cyber insurance strategies. The survey revealed that cloud security remains the most pressing concern for cybersecurity professionals, with 39% of respondents citing it as their top concern, followed by ransomware at 16% and remote workers at 12%. This represents a similar trend to a similar Delinea survey conducted at the 2022 RSA Conference.
The poll also found that requests for cyber insurance have decreased, with only 32% of respondents stating that they applied for coverage or a renewal in the past year, compared to 41% in 2022. This decrease may be attributed to rising costs of coverage, with 42% of those surveyed naming budget constraints as the biggest obstacle for obtaining cyber insurance.
The survey also highlighted the importance of Privileged Access Management (PAM), with 34% of participants claiming that PAM is one of the top three technologies their organizations are investing in to qualify for cyber insurance. However, nearly half of the survey respondents indicated that they have zero or very basic PAM controls in place.
Joseph Carson, Chief Security Scientist and Advisory CISO at Delinea, emphasized the importance of prioritizing cybersecurity to comply with security controls and ensure that sensitive data is protected at all costs. With the increasing regulatory compliance security standards being put into place, organizations need to comply with security controls that make the business insurable at a more affordable price.
Meeting compliance requirements was cited as the primary driver for seeking cyber insurance, as reported by 40% of those polled, while 29% indicated continued threats of ransomware followed by requirements from board/executives (13%) and customers (12%).
Overall, the survey underscores the need for organizations to prioritize cybersecurity, including cloud security and PAM controls, in order to reduce risk and become more resilient to cyberattacks.