A report by Gartner has advised companies to take a risk-based approach to stop cyber crime, rather than trying to prevent attacks with large-scale, expensive security deployments.

A survey commissioned by Gartner of 3,160 CIOs across 98 countries and various major industries showed that 35% had already invested in a form of digital security at their company, with 36% admitting that they were planning to activate digital security at their company in the short term.

Discussing the findings, Rob McMillan, research director at Gartner, said: “Raising budgets alone doesn’t create an improved risk posture.

“Security investments must be prioritised by business outcomes to ensure the right amount is spent on the right things.”

McMillan advised companies to take a risk-based approach, with businesses continuously changing plans and security techniques as and when necessary.

“Taking a risk-based approach is imperative to set a target level of cybersecurity readiness,” added MacMillan.

“In a twisted way, many cybercriminals are digital pioneers, finding ways to leverage big data and web-scale techniques to stage attacks and steal data.

”CIOs can’t protect their organisations from everything, so they need to create a sustainable set of controls that balances their need to protect their business with their need to run it.”