"New IBM Study Finds Cybersecurity Incident Responders Have Strong Sense of Service as Threats Cross Over to Physical World"
IBM Security has released the results of a global survey on the critical role of cybersecurity incident responders at a time when the physical and digital worlds are converging more. The study discovered that incident responders surveyed are motivated mainly by a strong sense of duty to protect others, a responsibility that has been increasingly challenged by the wave of disruptive attacks, ranging from the proliferation of ransomware attacks to the recent rise in wiper malware. Organizations critical to the global economy, supply chains, and goods movement have become prime targets for disruptive attacks. In 2021, IBM Security X-Force observed a quadrupling of cyberattacks against energy companies, while manufacturers experienced more ransomware attacks than any other industry, from food manufacturers to medical device manufacturers, automobile manufacturers, and steel manufacturers. As cyberattacks threaten critical services, incident responders in these industries are under immense pressure to defend the digital front line. Of the respondents, 81 percent said that the rise of ransomware has worsened the psychological pressures associated with cybersecurity incidents. The global survey of over 1,100 cybersecurity incident responders in ten markets revealed trends and challenges that incident responders face due to the nature of their job. With the number of cyberattacks on the rise in recent years, 68 percent of incident responders surveyed said it is common to be assigned to two or more overlapping incidents at the same time. This article continues to discuss key findings from the new IBM study on cybersecurity incident responders' experiences and challenges.