What did you think would keep a CEO awake at night?
Maybe revenue, bouncing back from a global pandemic or facing the ‘great resignation’?
According to a new report released by consulting firm KPMG, the number one issue causing CEOs to lose sleep is cyber security.
The report, titled Keeping Us Up at Night, interviewed more than 300 CEOs about the biggest risks they were facing and upcoming challenges.
The key research findings
CEOs and small business owners nominated protecting and dealing with cyber security risks as their most pressing issue and future risk, up from fourth place just a year ago.
KPMG chief executive Andrew Yates attributed their increasing concern to seeing the fallout from cyber attacks on the likes of Medibank and DP World.
The fear of cyber security is shared across the small business landscape, according to new Cyber Wardens research. Interviewing over 2,000 small business owners, CEOs and employees, cyber security came in at number three, after energy prices and the cost of staff.
A common theme across both reports was a lack of confidence in cyber security knowledge and a “fear of the unknown”. Of the small business owners and employees Cyber Wardens spoke to, only one in five felt confident in their ability to prepare, fight and recover from a cyber security threat.
Making cyber security a team sport
“The nearly daily examples of cyber threats show that as an activity, cyber security should now, if it isn’t already, be put at the heart of business and used as a foundation to build digital trust amongst customers, suppliers and staff,” the report stated.
Big business shouldn’t be the only ones aware of cyber security — cyber criminals are also targeting small business. According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), a cyber crime is reported every six minutes and nearly half of them are aimed at small businesses.
The Cyber Wardens program has been launched to support small business owners and their employees learn about cyber security and feel confident to defend themselves against cyber threats.
If you’re part of a small business and wanting to rest easy at night, enrol yourself (and team) into the Cyber Wardens eLearning. It’s free and takes just 45 minutes.
With Cyber Wardens, you can keep your digital floors clean and free of cyber criminals fishing.
