According to a new CyberArk (NASDAQ: CYBR) survey, the majority of organizations (nearly 70 percent) do not prioritize the protection of the applications that their business depend on – such as ERP and CRM systems – any differently than how low-value data, applications or services are secured.

The independent survey was conducted among 1,450 business and IT decision makers, primarily from Western European economies. Respondents indicated that even the slightest downtime affecting business critical applications would be massively disruptive, with 61 percent agreeing that the impact would be severe.

Breaches affecting applications that are the lifeblood of business can result in punitive costs, with a 2018 report estimating the average cost of an attack on an ERP system at $5.5 million USD.1 The threat actors that enterprises face are formidable – organized crime was behind 50 percent of all breaches in 2018, with attacks using established tactics like privileges abuse to achieve their aims.2

Despite the fact that more than half (56 percent) of organizations have experienced data loss, integrity issues or service disruptions affecting business critical applications in the previous two years, the survey found a large majority (72 percent) of respondents are confident that their organization can effectively stop all data security attacks or breaches at the perimeter. This brings to light a remarkable disconnect between where security strategy is focused and the business value of what is most important to the organization. An attacker targeting administrative privileges for these applications could cause significant disruption and could even halt business operations.

The survey also found that 74 percent of organizations indicated they have moved (or will move within two years) business critical applications to the cloud. A risk-prioritized approach to protecting these assets is necessary for this transition to be managed successfully. Further industry data shows that, globally, 69 percent of organizations are migrating data for popular ERP applications to the cloud.3

“From banking systems and R&D to customer service and supply chain, all businesses in all verticals run on critical applications. Accessing and disrupting these applications is a primary target for attackers due to their day-to-day operational importance and the wealth of information that resides in them – whether they are on-premises or in the cloud,” said David Higgins, EMEA technical director at CyberArk. “CISOs must take a prioritized, risk-based approach that applies the most rigorous protection to these applications, securing in particular privileged access to them and assuring that, regardless of what attacks penetrate the perimeter, they continue to run uncompromised.”

About the SurveyThe CyberArk-sponsored survey was conducted by Arlington Research amongst 1,450 business and IT decision makers in eight countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa: the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands and Israel.

Additional Resources

  • [Interactive Infographic] Business Critical Applications
  • [eBook] The Age of Digital Transformation – 5 Keys To Securing Your Business Critical Applications

1 – Industry-Focused Data Breach Report 2018 – ERPScan2 – 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)3 – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Applications and Cloud Adoption 2019

About CyberArkCyberArk (NASDAQ: CYBR) is the global leader in privileged access security, a critical layer of IT security to protect data, infrastructure and assets across the enterprise, in the cloud and throughout the DevOps pipeline. CyberArk delivers the industry’s most complete solution to reduce risk created by privileged credentials and secrets. The company is trusted by the world’s leading organizations, including more than 50 percent of the Fortune 500, to protect against external attackers and malicious insiders. A global company, CyberArk is headquartered in Petach Tikva, Israel, with U.S. headquarters located in Newton, Mass. The company also has offices throughout the Americas, EMEA, Asia Pacific and Japan. To learn more about CyberArk, visit www.cyberark.com, read the CyberArk blogs or follow on Twitter via @CyberArk, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Copyright © 2019 CyberArk Software. All Rights Reserved. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Media Relations Contacts:Brian Merrill, fama PRPhone: +1-617-986-5005Email: cyberark@famapr.com

Liz Campbell, CyberArkPhone: +1-617-558-2191Email: press@cyberark.com

Investor Relations Contact:Erica Smith, CyberArkPhone: +1 617-630-6426Email: ir@cyberark.com

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