New Cisco Study Reveals Which Security Practices Actually Work

In Saudi Arabia, the area of excellence identified by the greatest number of security and privacy professionals (55%) is managing top risks.
The new Security Outcomes Study reveals which practices most impact an organization’s security program: maintaining an up-to-date and integrated architecture, investing in threat detection and enabling timely threat response and recovery.

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, December 08, 2021 —Cisco has released its latest cybersecurity report, Security Outcomes Study Volume 2, surveying more than 5,100 security and privacy professionals across 27 countries, including Saudi Arabia, to determine the most impactful measures teams can take to defend their organizations against the evolving threat landscape.

The study showed that those in the bottom 20% of security programs can move to the top 20% if they recognize and invest in the top five practices: proactively refreshing outdated technology, well-integrated security technologies, timely incident response, prompt disaster recovery, and investing in accurate threat detection capabilities. Key findings of the study include:

Updating and Integrating Architecture

Investing in a proactive technology refresh strategy is more critical than ever, as on average 39% of security technologies used by organizations globally are considered outdated. In Saudi Arabia, respondents reveal themselves to be below the global average, reporting that 31% of their IT infrastructure is out of date.
Unsurprisingly, organizations with cloud-based architectures are more than twice as likely to refresh than those with more outdated, on-premises technologies.
In Saudi Arabia, 80% of security and privacy professionals stated that they are planning to expand their cloud-based security technology.
70% of respondents from Saudi Arabia report they have a strong Proactive Tech Refresh strategy to stay up-to-date with the best available IT and security technologies.
Organizations with integrated technologies are seven times more likely to achieve high levels of process automation. Additionally, these organizations boast more than 40% stronger threat detection capabilities.
In Saudi Arabia, 45.4% excel at retaining security talent. More than 75% of security operations programs globally, that do not have strong staffing resources are still able to achieve robust capabilities through high levels of automation. Automation more than doubles the performance of less experienced staff, supporting organizations through skills and labor shortages.

Detecting and Responding to Threats

The value of cloud-based security architectures cannot be understated. Organizations that claim to have mature implementations of Zero Trust or Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architectures are 35% more likely to report strong security operations than those with nascent implementations.
Organizations that leverage threat intelligence achieve faster mean time to repair (MTTR), with rates 50% lower than those of non-intel users.
In Saudi Arabia, 54.6% of security and privacy professionals stated that they are able to manage top risks.
49% of security and privacy professionals in the Kingdom stated that they are able to avoid major incidents

Staying Resilient when Disaster Strikes

As the threat landscape continues to evolve, testing business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities regularly and in multiple ways is more critical than ever, with proactive organizations 2.5 times more likely to maintain business resiliency.

“We recognize that today’s compliance requirements, skills shortages, a hybrid workforce and a threat-filled landscape are all making security increasingly complex. The global and local data behind Cisco’s Security Outcome Study means that identifying the most effective security practices is no longer guesswork,” said Fady Younes, Cybersecurity Director at Cisco Middle East and Africa. “Cisco continues to work with companies here in Saudi Arabia and around the world to uphold the best practices identified and as such, will continue to support security professionals in the adoption of cloud-based security solutions and threat intelligence, based on our open and integrated platform SecureX.”