Survey Shows Majority of Tech Executives Planning for Cyber Security Attacks

9/25/2013
Silicon Valley Bank, financial partner to the innovation sector, found the majority of technology and healthcare companies view cyber security as a serious threat to both their data and business continuity, and only one-third are completely confident in the security of their information in a survey of more than 200 technology company executives.  

The full report, "Cyber Security Impact on Innovation," was part of a discussion led by Silicon Valley Bank between Silicon Valley-based CEOs and Michael Daniel, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator on September 20. The group discussed the impact of cyber security threats and attacks on growing and established technology companies.

Nearly all (98 percent) of companies are maintaining or increasing their cyber security resources and of those, half are increasing resources devoted to online attacks this year. Resources are most likely to be invested in monitoring, preventative policies, training and staffing rather than in preventative infrastructure, indicating they are planning for when, not if, they are attacked.
While most respondents were moderately confident in the security of their information, they were less confident in their partners', vendors' and clients' security measures. Most respondents are storing their data privately, showing a lower appetite for storing their information in the public cloud. Software companies were the exception with 59% using the public cloud, versus more private behavior by hardware, healthcare and cleantech companies.

Forty-six percent of companies, whose main offering is not security, include cyber security functionality in their product and 8% more plan to add a cyber security component to their core offering.

The study, based on a survey of 216 executives of technology-based companies, is the first in a series of pulse surveys of Silicon Valley Bank's clients intended to give similar firms adequate benchmarks to compare themselves against as they build and run their businesses.

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. Individuals and businesses are encouraged to learn more about protecting their data. To that end, Silicon Valley Bank will host a webinar on Fraud Prevention at the end of October. Registration information will be available at http://www.svb.com/events.aspx later this month.
 
 
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