Threat intelligence saves millions

ThreatConnect has released findings of a survey, "Building a Threat Intelligence Programme," which reports that cybersecurity decision makers within organisations with mature threat intelligence programs (70%) say the infrastructure has blocked threats to the business that would have otherwise cost it a significant amount of money - on average, an estimated £6 million pounds saved in the last twelve months.

The study surveyed 350 cybersecurity decision makers in UK organisations, three in five (61%) of which have annual revenues over £50 million. When asked the most important factors for evaluating the success of a threat intelligence programme, organisational leaders point to protecting client information (76%), removing risks faced due to cyber crime activities (56%), preventing service interruptions for core business functions (49%) and protecting monetary assets of the business (47%).

Other key findings Include: 

1. Highly publicised attacks are a wake-up call to more British business

More than one-in-four cybersecurity decision makers say their organisations made changes to their threat intelligence programmes due to the highly publicised threats such as WannaCry and Heartbleed.

2. Sharing data with government groups is a priority for many UK organisations.

More than two-in-five cyber-security decision makers report sharing malware data, ransomware data, or general threat data with government groups or NGOs)

3. There are differing viewpoints among organisational leaders and those executing day-to-day operations when it comes to the rate of success in preventing cyber- attacks.Organisational leaders are more likely than senior management to say their organisations' threat intelligence programme successfully prevents attacks most of the time, including: phishing attacks (80% vs. 52%), ransomware (74% vs. 49%), breaches of customer data (65% vs. 37%). 

"Cybersecurity has become a major risk factor for businesses in every sector," said Adam Vincent, ThreatConnect CEO. "There's a huge amount of money at stake - not just in terms of direct theft, but also in the form of government fines for improper data handling. Companies that don't have a clear view of their network and how it could be at risk are in danger of a serious financial impact. An effective threat intelligence programme can help to equip security teams in identifying the most relevant threats, make decisions on how to defend themselves sooner, and quickly respond to incidents in a measurable way."