Jane Edwards
A new Splunk study has found that 66 percent of public sector organizations face difficulties in using data to mitigate cybersecurity threats and recover from cyber incidents and 52 percent of such organizations struggle to leverage data to inform decisions related to cybersecurity.
Splunk said Wednesday 56 percent of respondents in the public sector reported that disparate datasets impede agility and response to security incidents in real time.
The company commissioned Foundry Research to conduct an online poll of 210 information technology and data security management professionals from both public and private sectors between late October and early November for the report.
Forty-four percent of respondents from the public sector said they think the shared intelligence available to their organizations is lacking for their cybersecurity requirements.
“At the core, security is a data problem and organizations are missing a foundational piece of their security strategy when they cannot leverage their data,” said Bill Rowan, vice president of public sector at Splunk and a three-time Wash100 awardee.
According to the survey, 79 percent of public sector respondents said organizations should facilitate sharing of cybersecurity training materials and best practices, 69 percent said institutions should share information on threat intelligence and actors and 60 percent noted that agencies should share real-time information on security events.
The report showed that public and private sectors share similar priorities when it comes to cybersecurity, such as enhancing threat response and remediation and improving the detection of emerging threats.
“All organizations — both private and public — have a responsibility to citizens and customers to enable cyber resiliency and that can be done by having clear visibility and understanding of data. These shared challenges and priorities should translate into better threat intelligence sharing and security practices across all sectors,” Rowan noted.
Splunk said 60 percent of public sector respondents said their organizations plan to invest in monitoring initiatives to help meet cybersecurity priorities and 44 percent said their agencies intend to make investments in threat intelligence.
