Europe leads global cybersecurity as new benchmark warns of third party risk

Europe scores as the highest rated region for cybersecurity in a new cyber resilience monitor published by risk management analyst SecurityScorecard, which finds a strong correlation between a country’s GDP and cyber risk.

Publishing the first Cyber Resilience Scorecard at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, SecurityScorecard finds 98% of organisations use a third party that has suffered a cyber breach. “The intricate interdependence among various industries within the supply chain further complicates the cybersecurity landscape,” the report warns.

Although no global region scored the highest A rating, six regions – northern, western and central Europe, the Pacific, North America and the Middle East – sat within the low B range, which indicates a 2.9x likelihood of a cyber breach. Most regions fell in the C range, making a breach 5.4 times more likely than companies in an A-rated region.

“The data underscores that a nation’s economic prosperity is deeply intertwined with its ability to navigate the complex landscape of cyber threats,” said SecurityScorecard. It found that higher per capita GDP regions recorded stronger cybersecurity hygiene and lower cyber risk.

SecurityScorecard said that only the Pacific regions recorded a cybersecurity score higher than its GDP would suggest, while central Asia scores lower than its GDP, and the lowest of all regions.

SecurityScorecard’s analysis of over 110,000 security incidents and 6.3 million entities finds companies in the information services sector recorded the highest number of breaches, followed by technology companies and retail. Critical infrastructure sectors – including telecommunications, financial services and government – are also among the top ten industries affected by cyber breaches.

“This concentration of risk emphasises the importance of collaborative cyber risk management, as these high-risk sectors face and contribute to rapidly increasing cyber risk,” SecurityScorecard said.

It finds ten threat actors were behind 44% of global cyber incidents in the past year. APT28 – also known as Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear and BlueDelta – was named as the most active threat actor, accounting for more than 6% of all incidents. The report further finds that 24% of cyber incidents originate from China, with Russia accounting for 15%.

“The Cyber Resilience Scorecard provides an unprecedented view of global cybersecurity risk, arming leaders with data-driven insights to safeguard the world’s economies,” SecurityScorecard said.

Rob Knake, former deputy national cyber director in the US, said the new scorecard benchmarks cyber risk and the effectiveness of cyber defences. “Policymakers globally need to find new methods to assess national resilience and evaluate if policies and programs enhance cyber resilience. You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” Knake added.