In almost half of the cases, the incident is related to a premeditated attack.

Proximus has released its fourth annual cybersecurity report, prepared in collaboration with its subsidiaries Davinsi Labs, Proximus SpearIT, Telindus Luxembourg and Telindus Netherlands. More than 250 CEOs, CI(S)Os and IT managers in the Benelux countries took part in this survey.

The report shows that 32 percent of respondents experienced a cybersecurity incident at their organization in 2022. Almost half of all attacks are intentional. In most cases it is social engineering (e.g. phishing). Ransomware and malware such as viruses, worms and Trojans complete the top 3. Unauthorized actions and data leakage are the most commonly reported incidents of accidental incidents.

The consequences for the affected companies are often serious. 30 percent of the reported incidents resulted in employees being unable to work. Nearly 1 in 2 has a financial impact, with costs primarily related to incident reporting, reduced productivity and reputational damage.

80% have a cybersecurity strategy

According to the Proximus study, the frequency of incidents in large companies with more than 2,000 employees (60%) is significantly higher than in small and medium-sized companies (25%). The result shows that large organizations are a more popular target for cyberattacks, but may also indicate better detection.

This seems to be confirmed by the differences in sensitization. Almost 80 percent of large companies (250+ employees) organize at least one training session per year to raise awareness of cyber threats. For SMEs it is only 54%

Overall, around 80% of companies said they have or are preparing a cybersecurity strategy. Seven out of ten companies have or are working on a detailed response procedure. The sense of urgency is greater for organizations that have faced an incident in the past year.

Higher budgets in 2022

The growing focus on cybersecurity is also reflected in the allocated budgets. Even in budget times, more than one in five participating companies increased their cybersecurity budget by 20% or more in the past year.

The increase was most notable among large companies, where one in three respondents reported a significant budget increase.