Cybersecurity In Crisis: Gigamon Research Shows Global Leaders Struggling To Keep Up As Undetected Breaches Surge By 20%

In a wake-up call for enterprises worldwide, Gigamon’s latest research reveals a stark increase in undetected cyber breaches, highlighting significant vulnerabilities in current security measures. The 2024 Hybrid Cloud Security Survey indicates that 1 in 3 organisations failed to detect a breach in the past year, with only 25 percent capable of responding in real-time. This underscores a critical gap in defences, despite substantial cybersecurity investments.

Gigamon, a leader in deep observability, surveyed over 1,000 Security and IT leaders from Australia, France, Germany, Singapore, the UK, and the USA. The findings show a worrying decline in detection and response capabilities compared to the previous year. As hybrid cloud environments grow more complex and cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, 65 percent of respondents doubt their current solutions' effectiveness in detecting breaches. In Australia, the situation is particularly concerning, with 50 percent of respondents only detecting breaches when users experienced application access issues.

Complexity and Escalating Risks

Security and IT leaders face a pivotal moment. A staggering 83 percent of respondents believe that increasing cloud complexity is heightening their cyber risk. The threat of AI-powered attacks further complicates the landscape, with eight out of ten predicting a rise in global ransomware threats driven by AI. Despite global cybersecurity spending projected to reach $215 billion in 2024, only 54 percent of organisations feel "strongly prepared" to respond to unauthorized access in hybrid cloud environments.

Global Readiness Under Scrutiny

The data reveals significant gaps in organizational preparedness. In Australia, 76 percent of respondents have experienced a data breach, higher than the global average of 73 percent. Across the board, there is a general acknowledgment of weaknesses in threat detection tools. Only one in four could remediate a live threat during a recent breach. This figure slightly improves in Germany (30 percent) but drops to just 20 percent in Australia and Singapore.

The repercussions of these shortcomings are severe:

• 31 percent of organizations only detected breaches upon receiving extortion threats.
• Another 31 percent became aware of breaches only after proprietary information appeared on the dark web, with this figure rising to a troubling 42 percent among Australian respondents.
• 25 percent of respondents failed to determine the root cause of breaches, a problem more pronounced in Australia, Singapore, and the US.

Visibility Gaps and Deep Observability

The complexity of hybrid cloud infrastructures significantly contributes to these vulnerabilities. Despite 85 percent of respondents citing cloud security as a boardroom priority, visibility within hybrid clouds remains inadequate. Three-quarters of respondents agree on the critical importance of East-West (lateral) visibility over North-South, yet only 40 percent have achieved it, a decrease from 48 percent in 2023. This visibility gap is especially pronounced in the UK (30 percent), while nearly half of respondents in Australia and Singapore report better visibility.

Encryption adds another layer of challenge. Despite research indicating that 93 percent of malware hides in encrypted traffic, an astonishing 76 percent of respondents trust that encrypted traffic is secure.

The Imperative of Deep Observability

More than 80 percent of survey participants agree that unified visibility into hybrid cloud infrastructures, which provides network-derived intelligence to log-based security tools, is essential for preventing attacks. Additionally, six in ten believe that comprehensive visibility into all data in motion is crucial for the secure deployment of AI technologies. Consequently, 80 percent consider deep observability a board-level priority.

Security leaders universally recognize the importance of deep observability for secure and efficient AI deployments. In Australia, 84 percent of respondents see a strong link between deep observability and the implementation of Zero Trust principles. As regulatory environments increasingly demand board-level accountability for security postures, cloud security efforts are gaining prominence in C-suites. In Australia, 89 percent of respondents affirm that cloud security is a board priority.

CISOs: Bearing the Burden

The survey also sheds light on the pressures faced by CISOs. With 234 CISOs participating globally, the data reveals that they continue to bear the brunt of regulatory and technological challenges. Fifty-nine percent report that elevating cyber risk to a board priority would empower them most. However, 69 percent struggle to detect encrypted threats, and 70 percent believe their tools are inadequate for breach detection. Furthermore, three-quarters of CISOs find their security teams overwhelmed by extensive tool stacks, a figure 11 percent higher than their C-suite counterparts.

Call to Action for Business Leaders

Mark Jow, EMEA Technical Evangelist at Gigamon, emphasised the urgency: "Cyber risk is firmly in the spotlight this year, with governments and boardrooms finally recognising its place at the very top of the business risk register. And yet cybercriminals are evading detection over a third of the time. Today’s MELT-based (Metrics, Events, Logs, and Traces) approaches are no longer enough, as organisations need 360-degree visibility across the hybrid cloud. Whether organisations are fending off AI-powered attacks, integrating AI-powered solutions into hybrid cloud environments, or seeking to establish Zero Trust, deep observability is fundamental to success."

Chaim Mazal, CSO at Gigamon, echoed this sentiment: "It is clear for CISOs that organizations’ tool stacks are falling short. Security leaders are under pressure from governments to reduce cyber risk. But without real-time, network-derived intelligence and insights into all data in motion, including East-West and encrypted traffic, bad actors will continue to wreak havoc, now with AI accelerating their efforts."

Conclusion

The 2024 Hybrid Cloud Security Survey by Gigamon, conducted in collaboration with Vitreous World, underscores the critical need for businesses to enhance their cybersecurity strategies. As hybrid cloud environments evolve and cyber threats become more sophisticated, deep observability emerges as a cornerstone of effective security measures. The survey's findings serve as a clarion call for business leaders to prioritise comprehensive visibility and robust detection mechanisms to safeguard against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.

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