Cybersecurity still remains the greatest concern for many executives

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Investment in external services has created sluggish growth in employee security literacy

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A growing rate of investment in cloud computing and AI by businesses looking to stay ahead of the curve has also led to  a sharp rise in concern among company executives, new research has claimed.

As IT has become less centralized with a move towards cloud-based systems, combined with a shortage of skilled cybersecurity workers, businesses are having to rely more heavily on third party security, a study by Rackspace and Microsoft found.

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Growing investment in cyber budgets

As businesses have moved towards cloud based systems for areas such as data storage, so too have cyberattacks, with cloud architecture suffering a 12% increase of attacks from 2022, with nearly half of respondents relying on an external service to provide cloud security.

This move towards external providers has also meant that AI literacy among employees has remained alarmingly low, with just 39% of respondent organisations giving a “great” level of awareness and understanding among its employees. However, it's not all bad news.

Visibility of cybersecurity issues has grown among C-suites due to greater collaboration with IT security teams, boosting the skills and knowledge of executives and boards around these issues. 

C-suite concern has also driven IT budgets to new heights, with a third of businesses raising their dedicated cybersecurity budget by 14% and almost half saying that cybersecurity comprises 14% of their total IT budget. This growing investment and greater communication between executives and security departments will hopefully lead to a boost in investment in IT upskilling and boost employee literacy around cybersecurity issues.

“As cybersecurity has become increasingly complex, with workloads and data deployed across multiple platforms, it has become much more difficult to maintain a ‘go it alone’ mentality,” said D K Sinha, President, Public Cloud for Rackspace Technology.

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Benedict Collins
Benedict Collins
Senior Writer, Security

Benedict is a Senior Security Writer at TechRadar Pro, where he has specialized in covering the intersection of geopolitics, cyber-warfare, and business security.

Benedict provides detailed analysis on state-sponsored threat actors, APT groups, and the protection of critical national infrastructure, with his reporting bridging the gap between technical threat intelligence and B2B security strategy.

Benedict holds an MA (Distinction) in Security, Intelligence, and Diplomacy from the University of Buckingham Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS), with his specialization providing him with a robust academic framework for deconstructing complex international conflicts and intelligence operations, and the ability to translate intricate security data into actionable insights.