A new report commissioned by Rubrik sheds light on the most pressing challenges cybersecurity leaders face, including that 26% in Australia cite "insufficient talent in IT and SecOps" as their top security issue.

Conducted by Wakefield Research, Rubrik Zero Labs' The State of Data Security - The Human Impact of Cybercrime report for 2022 collates research from over 1,625 industry practitioners globally. This includes CIOs, CISOs, IT, and cybersecurity leaders, with 125 of those Australian respondents.

The survey was conducted between July 18 and July 27, 2022, and additional respondents came from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and India.

Additionally, 96% of Australian security and IT leaders say this lack of talent concerns them that they won't be able to maintain business continuity in the event of a cyber attack in the next 12 months.

Dale Heath, CTO at Rubrik ANZ, says the spate of recent data breaches is collectively Australia's turning point, causing local business leaders to become acutely aware of the risk of cyber attacks.

"The recent wave of cyberattacks have highlighted the lack of visibility and control organisations have into their environment. If you're unable to answer questions like 'what sensitive data do I have?' and, more importantly, 'where is that data stored?', how can you begin to understand the risk associated with it?" Heath says.

"This 'Road to Damascus moment' is forcing Australian businesses to accept that a breach is inevitable. Once you've taken this crucial first step, the way you protect your sensitive data changes drastically."

Additional Australian findings from the report include that 73% of Australian respondents say they'd consider paying the ransom if faced with a ransomware attack, with 47% saying they'd be "extremely" or "very likely" to pay the ransom.

In addition, not many of Australia's security leaders see zero-day attacks as their top threat despite the attention they get from the cybersecurity industry.

Instead, the most concerning threats for local organisations are data breaches at 31%, denial of service attacks at 17%, ransomware at 16% and zero-day exploits at just 14%.

Moreover, the top five challenges local security leaders face in securing their data are:

• Insufficient talent in IT and SecOps
• Insufficient budget for data security
• Lack of cybersecurity tools and solutions in place
• Haven't adequately addressed vulnerabilities from previous attacks
• Disagreement between different teams on how to protect against cyber attacks

Rubrik notes that this emphasises the lack of essential resources that security professionals have access to, particularly skilled talent.