61% of companies report weekly IT security incidents, according to research

Closing the month of cybersecurity awareness, the OTRS Group participates in Futurecom 2019, a technology event taking place from October 29 to 31 in São Paulo. To better understand the treatment of cybersecurity, the OTRS Group conducted a survey among 280 IT managers in Germany, the USA, and Brazil. An important finding: the majority (61%) of all respondents say they deal with security incidents at least once a week. When assessing how dangerous cyberattacks are to the company, 18% of respondents rated the security risk as very high, and half stated that their company had suffered financial losses due to security incidents. When asked if the incidents were handled in the best way, opinions differ: almost half (49%) said everything worked well, while the other half (49%) felt there was much room for improvement. The remaining two percent are still struggling to deal with the consequences of security incidents in general. In all three countries, the majority of IT managers (37% in the USA, 42% in Brazil, and 41% in Germany) responded that more clearly defined processes would be the biggest help in properly handling security incidents. Additionally, most respondents believe that government regulations such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), and LGPD (General Data Protection Law / Brazil) help keep data secure.Country comparison resultsThe US appears to be the country with the highest number of security incidents. Here, 68% responded that this occurs weekly or more frequently. In Brazil, 59% report weekly or more frequent incidents; and in Germany, this is only 57%. When asked what takes the most time when it comes to resolving security incidents, the opinions of the countries also differ somewhat: more than a third, 32% of German respondents state as their main answer that documenting everything after an incident takes the most time. In Brazil, 36% say that the biggest challenge seems to be finding information quickly enough, which also applies to the US, with 27%. In Germany, IT managers seem to be more skeptical about government regulations, such as GDPR: while 54% of German respondents said that regulations would help ensure data security, 86% in Brazil and 61% in the US share this opinion. Source: IP News

Frequently asked questions

What did the OTRS Group survey find about how often companies face IT security incidents?

The OTRS Group survey, conducted with 280 IT managers in Germany, the USA, and Brazil, found that 61% of respondents deal with security incidents at least once a week. In addition, 18% rated the security risk as very high, and half reported financial losses caused by these incidents.

What would help companies handle security incidents better, according to the IT managers surveyed?

Most IT managers in all three countries surveyed pointed to more clearly defined processes as the biggest help for properly handling security incidents (37% in the USA, 42% in Brazil, and 41% in Germany). This suggests that the lack of a structured process, not just technology, is a central bottleneck in incident response.

How does the rate of weekly security incidents compare between the USA, Brazil, and Germany?

According to the survey, the USA leads with 68% of respondents reporting weekly or more frequent incidents, followed by Brazil at 59% and Germany at 57%. Most respondents also believe that regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD help keep data secure.