As the barrage of endpoints continues to grow on networks, Absolute wanted to gauge RSA Conference attendees on the current cybersecurity landscape and how their organizations handle endpoint security. Today, Absolute announced the results of the survey taken during the conference. 

According to the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report, cyberattacks were only outranked by extreme weather events, climate change and natural disasters as the biggest risks facing our world - establishing them as the most urgent technology-driven issue for global business leaders. Furthermore, research from Risk Based Security shows that more than 5,000 data hacks occurred in 2019. 

Based on the results from the Absolute survey, however, respondents still ranked prevention as the top security strategy and area of investment for their organization. With nearly 100 respondents, most holding the position of a manager/supervisor or C-level executive, the top findings included: 

• More than 50 percent of respondents agreed that they were very concerned about the security of their endpoints (desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones), given the prevalence of ransomware, phishing and the growing number of new attack vectors.
• When it came to what they thought was the most important portion of their organization's strategy and investments, 55 percent said prevention was key. 
• As for how their organization is currently protecting data, applications, and devices currently, there was an even split among endpoint security, multi-factor authentication, employee training and incident response and resiliency. 
• More than 70 percent of respondents were familiar with ‘cyber resilience' and ‘endpoint resilience,' but a smaller number (38 percent) have an understanding of ‘self-healing applications.' 
  

Global cybersecurity spending continues its steep incline, estimated to reach $174 billion by 2022, as organizations work to thwart attackers and mitigate breaches with additional layers of security controls. And yet, even with this massive - and continuously growing - investment, Absolute's 2019 Endpoint Security Trends Report highlighted that 70 percent of breaches originate on the endpoint, and 35 percent of breaches that occur are the result of vulnerabilities the enterprise already knew about. 

As companies look to shore up their defenses, it is time to start thinking resilience versus prevention. 

Absolute's 2020 State of Endpoint Resilience Report is planned for release in Spring of this year. To download the full report once available, and to learn more about how Absolute enables more than 12,000 customers worldwide with uncompromised endpoint persistence, resilience, and intelligence, visit: www.absolute.com.