45% companies lack liable leader for cyber security: Study

New Delhi, Dec 8 : Revealing that industrial companies were not moving quickly to adopt cyber security measures to protect their data and operations, a study on Friday said 45 per cent of those surveyed lacked a reliable enterprise leader for cyber security.

Software-industrial company Honeywell polled 130 strategic decision makers from industrial companies about their approach to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and their use of industrial cyber security technologies and practices.

According to the "Putting Industrial Cyber Security at the Top of the CEO Agenda" survey -- conducted by LNS Research in collaboration with Honeywell -- more than half of respondents reported working in an industrial facility that already has had a cyber-security breach.

"Forty-five per cent of the responding companies still do not have an accountable enterprise leader for cyber security. Only 37 per cent are monitoring for suspicious behaviour," the survey said.

It added that although many companies are conducting regular risk assessments, 20 per cent are not doing them at all.

"In order to take advantage of the tremendous benefits of industrial digital transformation and IIoT, companies must improve their cyber security defences and adapt to the heightened threat landscape now," said Jeff Zindel, Vice President and General Manager, Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security.

The study suggested immediate actions for any industrial organisation to capture the value of the new technologies, which included making industrial cyber security part of digital transformation strategies and driving best practice adoption across people, processes and technology and tap external cyber expertise to fill gaps.

"Cyber security needs to be part of every CEO's (chief executive officer) agenda to ensure the effective, immediate and long-term deployment of strategies and technologies such as IIoT. In short, in order for a business to succeed on its digital transformation journey, it needs to succeed with industrial cyber security," said Matthew Littlefield, President and Principal Analyst, LNS Research.