Press release

88% of Security Professionals Say World Is in Permanent State of Cyber War

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Sponsored by Businesswire

Venafi®, the inventor and leading provider of machine identity protection, today announced the results of a survey of 485 IT security professionals attending RSA Conference 2020.

According to Venafi’s survey, 88% of security professionals believe the world is in a permanent state of cyber war, with 90% concerned that digital infrastructure will suffer the most damage as a result.

“Security professionals are under constant siege from very sophisticated threat actors targeting government, military and private organizations,” said Kevin Bocek, vice president of security strategy and threat intelligence at Venafi. “Powerful attack methods, like establishing backdoors with machine identities, are now available as commodity malware, making it harder for security professionals to defend against these attacks.”

According to respondents, the most vulnerable industries are those that are undergoing rapid digital transformation and are essential to daily life. Almost 60% of respondents say power, water, healthcare and transportation are equally vulnerable to a cyberattack that causes physical damage. Nineteen percent thought that power was most vulnerable, followed by healthcare (12%) and transportation and water (tied at 5%).

Bocek noted: “The sophisticated cyberattacks that are the hallmark of nation state attacks often target digital keys and certificates that serve as machine identities. These critical security assets are often poorly protected and provide attackers with the ability to hide in encrypted traffic, pivot across networks and eavesdrop on sensitive data. Any organization that isn’t protecting machine identities at least as well as they protect usernames and password is at greater risk of becoming a victim of a cyberattack. And, unfortunately, these risks are unlikely to change in the near term because most organizations are just beginning to understand these risks.”

For more information, please visit:

https://www.venafi.com/blog/venafi-survey-results-are-we-permanent-state-cyber-war

About Venafi

Venafi is the cybersecurity market leader and inventor of machine identity protection, securing machine-to-machine connections and communications. Venafi protects machine identity types by orchestrating cryptographic keys and digital certificates for SSL/TLS, IoT, code signing, mobile and SSH. Venafi provides global visibility of machine identities and the risks associated with them for the extended enterprise—on premises, mobile, virtual, cloud and IoT—at machine speed and scale. Venafi puts this intelligence into action with automated remediation that reduces the security and availability risks connected with weak or compromised machine identities while safeguarding the flow of information to trusted machines and preventing communication with machines that are not trusted.

With over 30 patents, Venafi delivers innovative solutions for the world’s most demanding, security-conscious Global 5000 organizations and government agencies, including the top five U.S. health insurers; the top five U.S. airlines; the top four credit card issuers; three out of the top four accounting and consulting firms; four of the top five U.S., U.K., Australian and South African banks; and four of the top five U.S. retailers. Venafi is backed by top-tier investors, including TCV, Foundation Capital, Intel Capital, QuestMark Partners, Mercato Partners and NextEquity.

For more information, visit: www.venafi.com.