Romanian companies to assign 14pct of IT budgets for cybersecurity in 2021

Romanian companies are willing to increase their budget to improve cybersecurity and allocate 14pct of IT budgets for this, but it is insufficient, according to a study commissioned by Safetech Innovations, a Romanian cybersecurity company.

Despite the significant increase in the number and sophistication of cybersecurity attacks, only four out of 10 companies are concerned about the possibility that they could be the target of an attack, while three out of 10 companies consider it very unlikely and therefore not are concerned about cybersecurity.

According to a company’s release issued on Tuesday, 62pcy of Romanian companies consider cybersecurity to be a key priority for their business. Large companies, with more than 250 employees, pay more attention to cybersecurity, 76pct of them consider it important, compared to only 58pct of SMEs.

However, despite the emphasis on cybersecurity, only a third of companies have implemented policies and procedures against cybersecurity attacks and less than half have a dedicated person who oversees cybersecurity. Half of the surveyed companies are willing to outsource cybersecurity services. 20pct of companies surveyed do not consider cybersecurity to be important enough to appoint a dedicated employee.

The antivirus solution remains the most common IT service used by both medium and large companies, and was indicated as the main protection measure, implemented by 86pct of them. Other methods of protecting companies against cyber attacks included using professional Wi-Fi (60pct), investing in network security (58pct), and disaster recovery (45pct).

The study also indicated that 6% of the surveyed companies suffered a cybersecurity attack between September 2019 and September 2020. A quarter of the companies managed to restore the system within an hour of the attack, while 75pct they restored the system within a day. One in 10 companies has faced a cybersecurity incident in the past year, the most important of which are the disruption of computer systems, the breach of personal data security and the destruction or corruption of data.

210 companies based in Romania participated in the quantitative survey conducted by MIA Marketing for Safetech Innovations. The companies come from the financial and banking, energy, utilities, production and online retail sectors.

The survey was conducted in September and October 2020 and includes the responses of managers responsible in companies for decisions related to IT&C investments such as CEOs, chief security officers and IT managers.