In today's world, cyberespionage -- especially attacks orchestrated by competitors -- is a legitimate concern for IT security professionals.  A recent survey from Bitdefender shows that 95% of companies fear cyberespionage campaigns and 61% of CISOs believe that competitors are the main interested party that would target an organization for corporate or industrial espionage. 

The survey details the pressures advanced persistent threats (APTs) place on 1,051 IT security professionals from large enterprises based in the US, UK, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. Some additional findings from the survey:  

• 58% of respondents thought that their organization could definitely be targeted by cyperespionage campaigns using APTs
  
• 36% of respondents thought they could possibly be targeted by APTs
  
• Less than 4% of respondents thought that APTs were not a significant threat to their working environment
  
• 90% said that cybersecurity decisions have reached board level 
  
• IT decision makers and CEOs are concerned about security, not only because of the monetary cost of a breach, but also because the reputation of their companies is at risk when customer data is lost or exposed to criminals. 
  
• 75% of US respondents state the worst consequences of an attacker gaining access to their companies' most valuable asset would be the financial cost and reputational damage
  

Grab your copy of the full survey results (which also breaks down responses by country) -- here.