New research has highlighted the past five years of global cyber threats that have affected the relationship between an organization’s security team and its C-suite.

According to Rackspace Technology’s annual cybersecurity study, cybersecurity assaults are now one of the top three business worries for more than half of Middle Eastern business leaders (59%)—putting them ahead of even price inflation (47%) and IT skills shortages (49%).

Nearly 75% of respondents believe that security teams now have more substantial board visibility than they did five years ago. Almost half of the respondents (55%) now see the C-suite as cybersecurity advocates.

Meanwhile, around 68% believe that the C-suite and security teams often cooperate. However, about 65% think there are few communication silos between the two groups.

“Huge encouragement can be taken from the findings that cybersecurity is now being prioritized at board or C-suite level – though this is also a reflection of the scale and severity of the challenges many organizations currently face from cyber threats,” said Rob Treacey, Head of EMEA Security at Rackspace Technology.

“Too often in the past, security teams have been undermined or siloed within organizations when their voices needed to be heard. It is therefore unsurprising to see cybersecurity emerge as a pivotal business issue as senior leaders finally recognize the need to keep hackers out and the potentially devastating consequences of not doing so,” Treacey added.

The report stated that almost seven out of ten organizations (70%) are increasing cybersecurity investment due to this stronger advocacy at the top level.

However, the latest problem is determining how to allocate these additional funds effectively, particularly given the shortage of workers and the high demand for specialized cyber capabilities. Lack of resources (28%) and experience (51%) are the two most frequent factors cited in the Middle East as why an organization must work with outside security providers.

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