Absolute Survey at RSA Conference 2020 Reveals Respondents Concerned About the Security of Endpoints

VANCOUVER, British Columbia and SAN JOSE, Calif. — March 3, 2020 — Absolute® (ABT.TO), the leader in endpoint resilience, today announced key insights from a survey of this year’s RSA Conference attendees to gauge where security and IT leaders are focusing their security investments, strategies, and resources with the ever-increasing number of users and endpoints (including desktops, laptops, and mobile devices) accessing corporate networks. Of the nearly 100 respondents, with most holding the position of a manager/supervisor or C-level executive, more than 50 percent agreed that they were very concerned about the security of corporate endpoints given the prevalence of sophisticated attack vectors like ransomware, disruptionware, phishing and more.

According to recent industry reports, 2019 saw a record number of more than 5000 breaches as well “an unprecedented and unrelenting barrage of ransomware attacks” in the U.S. that impacted at least 966 businesses, government agencies, educational establishments and healthcare providers at a potential cost of more than $7.5 billion. It’s no surprise, then, that that global cybersecurity spending continues its steep incline - estimated to reach $174 billion by 2022 - as organizations work to thwart attackers and mitigate breaches with additional layers of security controls.

When it comes to how organizations are spending these dollars to protect sensitive data and devices, more than 80 percent of Absolute’s survey respondents reported the use of endpoint security tools and multi-factor authentication. More than half of the respondents also relayed that prevention remains the core area of security focus and investment, even though a recent study shows that 60 percent of data breaches are the result of vulnerabilities that the enterprise already knew about but failed to address.

“The reality is that cybersecurity concerns and spend continue to rise, and yet so do breaches, ” said Christy Wyatt, CEO of Absolute. “To best prepare for the inevitable, companies need to look for capabilities that allow their endpoints to quickly heal and bounce back if they should become compromised or removed during an attack. The organizations that adopt a resilience-based strategy will be the ones who are able to respond, recover, and minimize the impact of a breach.”

Other key findings from the survey included:

• Nearly three in four respondents were familiar with the concepts of ‘cyber resilience’ and ‘endpoint resilience.’
• A significant population – more than one in three – noted incident response, recovery, or resilience as the most important element of their organization’s strategy, while 55 percent said prevention was key.
• More than three in four respondents reported their organizations are using endpoint security tools, multi-factor authentication, and employee training and education to protect data, devices, and users, while less than half noted the use of tools focused on tracking missing, lost, or stolen devices or ensuring vendor / partner security.

To learn more about Absolute and how the company enables more than 12,000 customers worldwide with uncompromised endpoint persistence, resilience, and intelligence, visit: www.absolute.com.