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Cloud Security Tops Ransomware As Primary RSA Conference Attendee Concern

Cloud security is their top concern for 2022, followed by ransomware and remote working, according to a a survey of 100 cybersecurity professionals at the RSA Conference in San Francisco by Delinea, a privileged access management (PAM) solution specialist. The survey also dug into the attendees’ views of cyber insurance and cyber hygiene practices.

Slightly less than 40 of the 100 respondents saw cloud security as their major worry, while 20 pointed to ransomware and a few less cited remote working security, the Redwood City, California-based company, formerly known as Centrify, said.

The survey also revealed that 80% of respondents claim their organization has not been breached in the past 12 months. This positive response may be due to strong cyber hygiene: Among the survey participants, roughly 60 percent claim to not use the same password on multiple accounts and nearly two thirds (66%) state they use multi-factor authentication (MFA) whenever available.

When asked about incident response readiness, cyber insurance factored prominently with 41% of respondents saying their organization has or is strongly considering arming themselves with cyber insurance.

"Passwords should never be the only security control for accessing critical systems, applications, and privileges,” said Joseph Carson, chief security scientist and advisory chief information security officer at Delinea. “By implementing MFA controls, it adds an extra layer of protection, should an attacker be able to compromise a password. MFA should be required not only at system log-in, but also at the point of horizontal and vertical privilege elevation," he said.

Meanwhile, a recent study by Verizon found that credential compromise is roughly 50 percent of all breaches. Of particular note to managed security service providers is the startling statistic that 62 percent of system intrusion incidents came through compromising an organization’s partner.