New report gives Canada a 77% grade for cybersecurity readiness

Canada has received an overall ranking of 77% – “C+” – for its cybersecurity readiness, according to a new report from Tenable Network Security, a continuous network monitoring company based in Columbia, Md.

For its 2016 Global Cybersecurity Assurance Report Card, released earlier this week, Tenable surveyed 504 global IT security professionals employed by organizations with 1,000+ employees in August. Canada’s ranking – at an overall score of 77% – was just slightly higher than the overall global score of 76% or “C”.

The report tallied responses from six countries – Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany and Australia – and seven industry verticals, and also calculated a global score reflecting “the overall confidence levels of security practitioners that the world’s cyber defences are meeting expectations,” Tenable said in a press release.

Canada’s overall score was 77%, with a 70% grade for risk assessment and a grade of 84% for security assurance. Canada’s standing was in second place, compared to the U.S. in first place with an overall score of 80% (B-) and Australia in last place at 69% (D+). Of the seven industries studied – education, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and telecom/technology – financial services and telecom/technology received the highest marks of 81% each, while education received the lowest mark at 64%. [click image below to enlarge]

According to survey data, nearly 40% of respondents said they feel “about the same” or “more pessimistic” about their organizations’ ability to defend against cyberattacks compared to last year. When asked about the biggest challenges facing them today, the respondents cited an overwhelming threat environment as the biggest challenge, while reporting relative confidence in the effectiveness of cybersecurity products.

“What this tells me is that while security innovations solve specific new challenges, practitioners are struggling to effectively deploy an overarching security strategy without gaps between defences,” said Ron Gula, CEO of Tenable Network Security, in the press release.

Cloud, mobile devices and board-level involvement were identified as common areas of weakness across the key industry verticals. Respondents consistently cited cloud applications (graded D+) and cloud infrastructure (D) as two of the most challenging IT components for assessing cybersecurity risks. Mobile devices (D) also were reported as particularly challenging when assessing cyber risks. The inability to even detect transient mobile devices in the first place (C) was another big challenge for the world’s security practitioners, the press release said.

On the upside, respondents largely believe they have the tools in place to measure overall security effectiveness (B-) and to convey security risks to executives and board members. On the downside, respondents question whether their executives and board members fully understand those security risks (C+) and are investing enough to mitigate them (C).

“These index scores reflect a startling lack of ability to detect and assess cyber risk in both cloud infrastructure and applications as well as mobile devices,” Gula said in the press release. “Another concern is the uphill battle security professionals face in mobilizing their organizations’ leadership to prioritize security. There’s a disconnect between the CISO and the boardroom that must be bridged before real progress can be made.”