According to a recent survey, approximately 88% of Irish executives said that the increased digital acceleration had caused an increase in cyberattacks at their organisation since 2020.
75% of Irish organisations plan to increase their cybersecurity budgets for 2023, according to the PwC 2023 Digital Trust Insights Survey.
However, more than eight out of ten respondents acknowledged that they had not entirely reduced their exposure to cybersecurity risk in a number of critical areas.
Remote and hybrid work, cloud adoption, use of the internet of things, and the digitization of the supply chain were significant areas where such risk was not fully mitigated.
Half of Irish businesses confirmed that their organisation had detected a significant cyber threat and prevented it from impacting their operations in the past 12 months.
“Driven by events no-one could have foreseen, business leaders in recent years have pushed their companies and themselves beyond their comfort zones – out of the office to remote workplaces, into the cloud, and along supply chains that are nearly completely digital,” said Leonard McAuliffe, Partner, PwC Ireland Cybersecurity Practice.
“With each new venture has come new cyber risks which are on the rise.
“We expect cyberattacks to escalate in 2023 in Ireland and globally with ransomware not abating,” Mr. McAuliffe added.
In order to identify the top cybersecurity challenges, the study polled more than 3,500 senior business executives from 65 different countries, including Ireland.