Almost one-third of CIOs have had to respond to a major cyber attack in the past two years

Organised cyber crime is the biggest threat, say IT leaders

Almost one-third of CIOs have had to respond to a major IT security emergency or cyber attack on behalf of their organisation in the past two years, according to a survey by recruiter Harvey Nash and professional services firm KPMG.

According to the 2016 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO survey, organised cyber crime came top of the list of security incidents that CIOs had to deal with - nearly seven in 10 IT leaders claimed that this was their biggest threat. Amateur hackers came a distant second (48 per cent) and malicious insiders third (40 per cent). Spammers (37 per cent), foreign powers (27 per cent) and competitors (16 per cent) were other causes of concern.

Meanwhile, more than one-fifth (22 per cent) of CIOs are ‘very confident' that they could contain cyber threats, down from 29 per cent in 2014 - although 66 per cent said they were ‘quite confident' that their risks were covered. Adam Woodhouse, director of the CIO Advisory practice at KPMG UK, said that he was concerned that less than one-quarter of IT leaders said they felt ‘very well positioned' to deal with IT security.

However, there is growing confidence among CIOs in the ability of their board to recognise the risks posed by cyber threats. Last year, 64 per cent felt their board were attuned to these risks; this has increased to 68 per cent this year.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, CIO confidence in regards to cyber security increases with organisation size. At organisations with IT budgets below $100m, only 65 per cent of IT leaders are confident in the board. That increases to 81 per cent for those with IT budgets between $100m and $250m, and 85 per cent for those firms with IT budgets of more than $250m.

Meanwhile, only 40 per cent of respondents cited ‘insiders' as a significant concern, despite an increasingly higher proportion of cyber incidents originating from within the organisation.

Harvey Nash surveyed 3,352 CIOs and technology leaders in 82 countries between December 2015 and April 2016.