research Archives - Page 3 of 13 - Cyber Secure Forum | Forum Events Ltd
Posts Tagged :

research

Bets being placed on B2B metaverse leaders

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0

As metaverse-related B2B use cases start emerging, companies such as Meta and Microsoft are trending across signals, including news, job postings, filing mentions, patents, and influencer discussions.

In it’s latest research GlobalData cites Mercedes-Benz and BAE Systems recently collaborating with Microsoft for virtual manufacturing and simulation. Both companies aim to drive supply chain efficiencies and generate virtual twins for their manufacturing processes.

Rinaldo Pereira, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData, said: “An analysis of GlobalData’s Company Analytics database reveals that companies are actively exploring practical applications for the metaverse within a B2B context, beyond its current conceptualization. The metaverse has the potential to revolutionize industrial manufacturing, and virtual prototyping can help save time and resources, and reduce the need for expensive physical prototypes.”

The metaverse can be used to create virtual showrooms like FIAT’s metaverse store allowing customers to interact with vehicles in a realistic, immersive environment. This use case helps improve customer experience.

Pereira added: “An example of virtual showrooms was FIAT teaming up with Microsoft and Touchcast for the FIAT metaverse store at CES 2023. The metaverse dominated conversations around #CES2023 on social media, stealing the spotlight and generating buzz.”

GlobalData expects a metaverse’ winter in 2023, however its potential will likely not dampen. Metaverse and virtual reality were the key topics and witnessed a staggering 800% month-on-month growth during 05 December 2022 – 04 January 2023 over the previous month among the Twitter influencer conversations about “#CES2023”.

Meta is also forging ahead with strategic partnerships. For example, the collaboration between Intel and Meta is set to bring low-latency wireless VR gaming. Meta had also announced partnerships with Accenture and Microsoft earlier in 2022.

Pereira concluded: “While still at conceptual stage, the metaverse can allow companies to create immersive, interactive training simulations to improve employee productivity. Virtual factories or digital twins can also help in remote team collaborations across different geographies. As Twitter was abuzz with #CES2023, it is evident that the Metaverse continues to capture the attention of influencers.”

Employee burnout is cyber security professionals’ greatest fear amidst rising cyber threats  

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0
35% of cyber security professionals surveyed have cited employee burnout as the most concerning issue amongst increasing cyber threats. This comes as cyber security teams are put under mounting pressure to tackle the complexity of the modern hybrid enterprise and the necessity to protect corporate data wherever it resides.

According to a poll carried out by  Integrity360 and Vectra, almost 63% of respondents highlighted security of data as being most important to their organisation when establishing the need for effective cyber security services. Of lesser concern was, securing reputation (19%), productivity (12%) and saving money (7%). 

The good news is that organisations are looking to implement critical security measures to ensure greater threat detection and response in 2023, with identity and access management (29.9%) and cloud security (29.7%) on top of the agenda, followed by network (19.6%) and endpoint security (20.6%).  

Richard Ford, CTO at Integrity360, said: “Analysts are facing severe burnout from alert fatigue and Security OperationsCentre (SOC) overwhelm, and organisations are lacking the experience, skills and bandwidth needed to detect and manage security incidents and data – quickly and effectively. The integration of Vectra into our MDR service is a game changer. It allows us to provide a full end to end capability to monitor and proactively hunt threats across the entire hybrid enterprise, delivering advanced Threat Detection and Threat Response services and relieving SOC teams overwhelmed by noise.” 

When questioned on the best approaches to future-proof the security of their organisation, 52 % of respondents to the poll pointed to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) as the best means.  

Comprising of four question and answer options and drawing 1,483 responses, the Integrity360 Twitter poll was conducted between 1st-5th December 2022.

Enterprise ICT revenue in China to hit $179bn by 2026

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0

The enterprise ICT revenue opportunity in China is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.5% between 2021 and 2026.

The ongoing government initiatives prioritizing industrial digitalization and acceleration of digital transformation activities across large enterprises and SMEs provide a promising ground for the ICT market growth in the country, forecasts GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s research on “China enterprise ICT market” reveals that the digitalization of national governance systems and government capabilities along with the expansion of 5G infrastructure and extensive use of digital applications such as e-commerce and digital payments will drive the demand for ICT services and products in the country over the forecast period.

Pragyan Tarasia, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, said: “While the country’s economy is largely concentrated around manufacturing, the government’s push to create a diverse digital economy as one of the key objectives under its 14th five-year plan (2021-2025) and Vision 2035 is significantly driving the demand for various ICT products and services in China.”

IT software segment to be the fastest growing enterprise ICT market

GlobalData forecasts IT software to be the fastest growing enterprise ICT segment at 10% CAGR and reach $171.9 billion in 2026.

Tarasia continued: “Increasing adoption of process automation and application-based service delivery model among enterprises in China to support digitalization as it transitions from manufacturing to service-based economy will drive the revenue prospects for the software segment.

“Furthermore, Chinese tech giants such as Huawei, ZTE, Xiaomi, and Haier that are specialized in hardware or telecommunication equipment also have a strong presence in the software segment. The presence of other key domestic IT players such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu has also significantly increased the innovation capability of China’s IT software segment.”

Manufacturing the largest end-use vertical

GlobalData forecasts manufacturing sector to account for 14.2% share in the overall cumulative ICT market revenue in China over the forecast period. ICT revenue from the manufacturing sector is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 8.3% to reach $104.5 billion in 2026.

Tarasia added: “The use of Industry 4.0 concepts is a linchpin in making the manufacturing sector a key market for ICT. While China boasts companies like Xiaomi in smart hardware and Beijing Automotive Group in automotive, it also hosts factories and production units for several international industrial conglomerates. The five-year plan for smart manufacturing to support large manufacturers achieve digitalization by 2025 will boost intelligent manufacturing in the country.

“Recent sanctions from developed nations may stifle China’s future industry growth by some extent. For instance, the US Commerce Department has prohibited supplying high-tech equipment to chipmakers in China. This type of sanctions will have a negative impact on China’s growth rate in chip technology.”

Over 90% of online trackers are from Facebook, Microsoft and Google

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0
93.7% of online trackers are from Facebook, Microsoft and Google, with the latter’s making up 49.9% of all trackers found on the web.
That’s according to research from Atlas VPN, which notes that Google’s YouTube and ad network Doubleclick also have a significant share of trackers online. YouTube has a 13.8% share, while Doubleclick trackers make up 8.3%.
Out of all trackers, Facebook’s trackers make up 15.7% of the share. Facebook, Atlas VPN reminds us, has suffered multiple data breaches in the past and has been involved in privacy scandals.
Microsoft’s trackers are the least common in this list, with 6% of the share. Finally, Hotjar has a 6.3% share of trackers online. Their tracker helps websites collect IP address, device type, operating system browser type, window size, and content.
Beyond trackers, other web privacy threats exist that can corrupt your safety online.
Session replay script was found in 35% of the scanned websites. This type of threat captures visitors’ journey on the website. During the recording of the user’s session, the script may also capture personal identifiable information (PII).
Fingerprinting scripts were present in 30.9% of websites. About one out of four (24.9%) websites had a newly registered domain name. Foreign actors from countries like Russia, Belarus, China, and Iran originated 9% of malicious scripts. Malware and bad SSL were each present in just 0.1% of websites.
To read the full research result, click here.

Rackspace: IT departments plugging talent gaps with technology

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0

77% of UK organisations, including IT operations, say they are finding ways for technology to do jobs formerly performed by people in the face of hiring and skills issues.

That’s according to new research from Rackspace Technology, which shows two thirds (64%) of UK companies are downsizing their staff, facilitated by technology, out of a necessity, with roles in customer service the most likely to be automated, as identified by 70% of business decision makers – followed by IT operations (62%), sales and marketing (57%), business operations (56%), and HR and admin (56%).

Half of UK companies (47%) have increased their IT investment due to the current economic climate, recognising the crucial role technology will play in improving performance and plugging skills gaps.

Almost two thirds (63%) are looking for technology to drive greater efficiencies, such as through moving infrastructure to the cloud, but the motivation for increased investment also extends to talent issues, with UK companies now investing 1.5 times more money in roles performed by technology than those performed by people.

This reflects the challenging labour market, with two thirds (65%) of companies finding it difficult to fill technical vacancies and a similar proportion (62%) struggling to retain IT staff.

This commitment to technology to combat talent shortages, and the consequent trend for an increase in IT investment, is also being driven by growing confidence in return on investment among senior leaders. Three in five (58%) organisations acknowledge established ROI on technology is encouraging further financial commitments.

It is also shifting the requirements for all staff, not solely those working in IT. The vast majority (85%) of UK companies now prefer non-technical staff to have a degree of technical proficiency, regardless of whether it’s a core element of the role. 

Mahesh Desai, Chief Relationship Officer, EMEA, at Rackspace Technology, comments: “In times of economic uncertainty, committing increased spend to technology is a risk a majority of companies simply must take in the face of technical skills shortages across the board.

“Not only can technology offset the reduced workforce available but it is a well-established way of driving business efficiencies as well – though only if used effectively.

“Three quarters (73%) of UK organisations also said cloud operations would be a key investment area over the next 12-18 months and while they have correctly identified an important tool in improving their operations, they will need to optimise these investments and strategies to feel the true benefit.

“It should also be noted that technology itself is very different to technical-proficient staff. A tough labour market and therefore necessity might be driving the growing role tech is playing within companies but finding and retaining capable staff will remain crucial for businesses to thrive.”

To download the full report, click here.

Business confidence in cyber attack recovery ‘at an all time low’

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0

IT and security leaders must address, on average, one cyberattack per week, while a third of organisations are forced to change leadership as a result of an incident.

That’s according to “The State of Data Security” report by Rubrik Zero Labs, which gathered insights from more than 1,600 security and IT leaders including CISOs, CIOs, VPs and Directors across 10 countries. The findings exposed rising security risks for organizations, resulting in widespread damage to organizations and their IT and security teams.

Key findings include:

Cyberattacks Continue to Surge in Volume and Impact:

  • Nearly every leader surveyed experienced a cyberattack over the past year, and on average faced 47 attacks in that timeframe — or nearly one cyberattack per week.
  • 52% reported a data breach and 51% reported facing a ransomware attack in the past year.
  • Only 5% of organizations were able to return to business continuity or normal operations within one hour of discovering a cyberattack.
  • 48% of IT and security leaders reported to be concerned about data breaches (25%) or ransomware events (23%) as the top threat for the year ahead.

Organizations Are Losing Confidence in Their Ability to Withstand Attacks:

  • 92% of respondents are concerned they will be unable to maintain business continuity if they experience a cyberattack.
  • One third believe their board has little to no confidence in their organization’s ability to recover critical data and business applications after a cyberattack.
  • 76% of survey respondents reported their organization is likely to consider paying a ransom following a cyberattack.
  • 11% of IT and security leaders said they had not adequately addressed vulnerabilities from previous cyber events.

The Weight of Cybercrime Is Taking a Toll:

  • 96% of respondents reported experiencing significant emotional or psychological consequences following a cyberattack, ranging from worries over job security (43%) to loss of trust among colleagues (37%).
  • About one third of respondents reported leadership changes as a result of a cyberattack.
  • About one third of leaders surveyed said their IT and SecOps teams were either somewhat or not at all aligned when it came to defending their organizations.

“It’s clear from this research that cyberattacks continue to produce large impacts against global organizations and the effects are compounding,” said Steven Stone, Head of Rubrik Zero Labs. “In addition to this rise in frequency and impacts of cyber events, the individuals on the front lines are taking a psychological hit on their wellbeing. Trust is down and anxiety is up. Without a proactive and reliable approach to defend against modern cyberthreats and strengthen confidence in an organization’s ability to resolve these cyber events, these impacts – both human and organizational – will continue to worsen and feed each other.  The good news is we’re also seeing pragmatic, proven strategies in this same space paying off and we can build off these approaches.”

“We often overlook the psychological dimension of cyberattacks and the chaos that tends to follow after discovering an incident,” said Chris Krebs, Former Director of CISA and Founding Partner of the Krebs Stamos Group. “The bad guys sure have figured it out, though, with criminals and state actors alike trying to generate emotional responses when they attack, as evidenced by the increase in criminal extortion efforts and hack and leak campaigns. In the end, IT and security leaders alike tend to take the blame for these cyberattacks. One of the most effective techniques I’ve seen to prepare for these types of attacks is to accept you’re going to have a bad day at some point, and your job is to ensure that it doesn’t become a “worse day.” This is why we need defenders across the spectrum to come together – sharing best practices, learnings after attacks, simulations, frameworks – so that we’re collectively strengthening our defenses and minimizing the psychological impact brought on by an attack.”

“The State of Data Security” comes from Rubrik Zero Labs, the company’s ​​new cybersecurity research unit formed to analyze the global threat landscape, report on emerging data security issues, and give organizations research-backed insights and best practices to secure their data against increasing cyber events.

Cyberthreats and IT governance are top concerns for auditors in 2023

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0

Cyberthreats and IT governance are top risk areas for internal auditors to address in their audit plans for 2023.

That’s according to the Gartner 2023 Audit Plan Hot Spots Report, which identifies the top 12 risk focus areas for Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) to help them identify risks to their organisations and plan audit coverage for the coming year.

“Cyberthreats remain a perennial concern for CAEs, yet the drivers of this risk have evolved as a result of new geopolitical conflicts and the heightened prospect of state-sponsored attacks,” said Leslee McKnight, vice president for the Gartner Legal, Risk and Compliance practice. “Mitigation plans need to be revisited to reflect the evolution of the risk and prepare the organization to meet increasingly stringent disclosure requirements in the event of a breach.”

Adjacent hot spots, such as ensuring adequate IT governance and third-party risk management, contribute to a challenging outlook for mitigating the full array of potential cyberthreats facing organizations in 2023. While most CAEs indicated they planned to address cybersecurity in their plans next year, only 42% of survey respondents expressed a high level of confidence in their ability to provide adequate assurance in this area.

Gartner’s annual report is based on a survey of 112 CAEs completed in August 2022, additional structured interviews with CAEs and IT Audit leaders, as well as data and insights generated from cross-functional Gartner research throughout 2022. The top risk focus areas identified from this process are listed below.

2023 Audit Plan Hot Spots

  • Cyberthreats
  • IT Governance
  • Data Governance
  • Third-Party Risk Management
  • Organizational Resilience
  • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
  • Supply Chain
  • Macroeconomic Volatility
  • Workforce Management
  • Cost Pressures
  • Culture
  • Climate Degradation

Three key themes drove the risks this year including a “renationalization of resources” and a “triple squeeze” of growing cost pressures, supply chain risks and labor scarcity. The final theme, the need to “rethink organizational resilience,” is unique as its own distinct risk area and a driver of a multitude of other risks.

The ability to withstand crises and disruptions may become more critical next year, and many organizations still take a limited view of resilience, mostly focused on business continuity and IT disaster recovery. This narrow view of resilience fails to account for additional risks impacting resilience including greatly increased economic volatility and impacts from climate degradation.

“Rethinking resilience is a key theme that underlies a diverse set of risks facing organizations in 2023, including economic volatility, climate degradation and third-party risk management,” said McKnight. “Currently less than one third of audit leaders are highly confident in their team’s ability to provide assurance over organizational resilience risk, and more concerning, less than half plan to cover organizational resilience in audit activities in the coming year.”

McKnight further noted that the increasingly interconnected risk landscape increases the chances for cascading risks, where one risk causes additional risks to manifest for an organization, a scenario that few organizations are actively planning against today.

80% of software supply chains exposed to attack

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0

Four in five (80%) IT decision makers stated that their organisation had received notification of attack or vulnerability in its supply chain of software in the last 12 months, with the operating system and web browser creating the biggest impact.

That’s according to new research from BlackBerry, which shows that following a software supply chain attack, respondents reported significant operational disruption (59%), data loss (58%) and reputational impact (52%), with nine out of ten organisations (90%) taking up to a month to recover.

The results come at a time of increased U.S. regulatory and legislative interest in addressing software supply chain security vulnerabilities.

The survey of 1,500 IT decision makers and cybersecurity leaders across North America, the United Kingdom and Australia revealed the significant challenge of securing software supply chains against cyberattack, even with rigorous use of recommended measures such as data encryption, Identity Access Management (IAM) and Secure Privileged Access Management (PAM) frameworks.

Despite enforcing these measures across partners, more than three-quarters (77%) of respondents had, in the last 12 months, discovered unknown participants within their software supply chain that they were not previously aware of and that they had not been monitoring for adherence to critical security standards.

“While most have confidence that their software supply chain partners have policies in place of at least comparable strength to their own, it is the lack of granular detail that exposes vulnerabilities for cybercriminals to exploit,” said Christine Gadsby, VP, Product Security at BlackBerry. “Unknown components and a lack of visibility on the software supply chain introduce blind spots containing potential vulnerabilities that can wreak havoc across not just one enterprise, but several, through loss of data and intellectual property and operational downtime, along with financial and reputational impact. How companies monitor and manage cybersecurity in their software supply chain has to rely on more than just trust.”

Results also revealed that while, on average, organisations were found to perform a quarterly inventory of their own software environment, they were prevented from more frequent monitoring by factors including a lack of skills (54%) and visibility (44%). In fact, 71% said they would welcome tools to improve inventory of software libraries within their supply chain and provide greater visibility to software impacted by a vulnerability. Similarly, 72% were in favour of greater governmental oversight of open-source software to make it more secure against cyber threats.

In the event of a breach, 62% of respondents agree that speed of communications is paramount and 63% would prefer a consolidated event management system for contacting internal security stakeholders and external partners. Yet only 19% have this kind of communications system in place. Multiple systems are in place with the remaining 81%, despite only 28% of respondents saying that they need to tailor communications to different stakeholder groups.

62% of consumers still choosing to use repeat passwords

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0

Regardless of generational differences across Boomers, Millennials and Gen Z, new research shows a false sense of password security given current behaviours across the board.

In addition, the LastPass fifth annual Psychology of Password findings found that while 65% of all respondents have some form of cybersecurity education – through school, work, social media, books or courses – the reality is that 62% almost always or mostly use the same or variation of a password. 

The goal of the LastPass Psychology of Passwords research is to showcase how password management education and use can secure users’ online lives, transforming unpredictable behaviour into real and secure password competence. The survey, which explored the password security behaviours of 3,750 professionals across seven countries, asked about respondents’ mindset and behaviours surrounding their online security.

The findings highlighted a clear disconnect between high confidence when it comes to their password management and their unsafe actions. While the majority of professionals surveyed claimed to be confident in their current password management, this doesn’t translate to safer online behaviour and can create a detrimental false sense of safety. 

Key findings from the research include: 

  • Gen Z is confident when it comes to their password management, while also being the biggest offenders of poor password hygiene. As the generation who has lived most of their lives online, Gen Z (1997 – 2012) believes their password methods to be “very safe”. They are the most likely to create stronger passwords for social media and entertainment accounts, compared to other generations. However, Gen Z is also more likely to recognise that using the same or similar password for multiple logins is a risk, but they use a variation of a single password 69% of the time, alongside Millennials (1981 –1996) who do this 66% of the time. On the other hand, Gen Z is the generation most likely to use memorisation to keep track of their passwords ( 51%), with Boomers (1946 – 1964) the least likely to memorise their passwords at 38%. 
  • Cybersecurity education doesn’t necessarily translate to action. With 65% of those surveyed claiming to have some type of cybersecurity education, the majority (79%) found their education to be effective, whether formal or informal. But of those who received cybersecurity education, only 31% stopped reusing passwords. And only 25% started using a password manager. 
  • Confidence creates a false sense of password security. While 89% of respondents acknowledged that using the same password or variation is a risk, only 12% use different passwords for different accounts, and 62% always or mostly use the same password or a variation. To add to that, compared to last year, people are now increasingly using variations of the same password, with 41% in 2022 vs. 36% in 2021. 

“Our latest research showcases that even in the face of a pandemic, where we spent more time online amid rising cyberattacks, there continues to be a disconnect for people when it comes to protecting their digital lives,” said Christofer Hoff, Chief Secure Technology Officer for LastPass. “The reality is that even though nearly two-thirds of respondents have some form of cybersecurity education, it is not being put into practice for varying reasons. For both consumers and businesses, a password manager is a simple step to keep your accounts safe and secure.” 

For more information and to download the full Psychology of Passwords research findings, please click here. 

CIOs ‘need to accelerate time to value’ from digital investments

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
0

CIOs and IT leaders must take action to accelerate time to value and drive top- and bottom-line enterprise growth from digital investments.

That’s according to Gartner’s annual global survey of CIOs and technology executives, which gathered data from 2,203 CIO respondents in 81 countries and all major industries, representing approximately $15 trillion in revenue/public-sector budgets and $322 billion in IT spending.

“The pressure on CIOs to deliver digital dividends is higher than ever,” said Daniel Sanchez Reina, VP Analyst at Gartner. “CEOs and boards anticipated that investments in digital assets, channels and digital business capabilities would accelerate growth beyond what was previously possible. Now, business leadership expects to see these digital-driven improvements reflected in enterprise financials.

“CIOs expect IT budgets to increase 5.1% on average in 2023 – lower than the projected 6.5% global inflation rate. A triple squeeze of economic pressure, scarce and expensive talent and ongoing supply challenges is heightening the desire and urgency to realize time to value.”

The survey analysis revealed four ways in which CIOs can deliver digital dividends and demonstrate the financial impact of technology investments:

Prioritize the Right Digital Initiatives

Survey respondents ranked their executives’ objectives for digital technology investment over the last two years. The top two objectives were to improve operational excellence (53%) and improve customer or citizen experience (45%). In comparison, only 27% cited growing revenue as a primary objective and 22% cited improving cost efficiency.

“CIOs must prioritize digital initiatives with market-facing, growth impact,” said Janelle Hill, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner. “For some CIOs, this means stepping out of their comfort zone of internal back-office automation to instead focus on customer or constituent-facing initiatives.”

The survey revealed that CIOs’ future technology plans remain focused on optimization rather than growth. CIOs’ top areas of increased investment for 2023 include cyber and information security (66%), business intelligence/data analytics (55%) and cloud platforms (50%). However, just 32% are increasing investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and 24% in hyperautomation.

“Leading CIOs are more likely to leverage data, analytics and AI to detect emerging consumer behavior or sentiment that might represent a growth opportunity,” added Hill.

Create a Metrics Hierarchy

The survey found that 95% of organizations struggle with developing a vision for digital change, often due to competing expectations from different stakeholders. To drive financial outcomes, CIOs must reconcile siloed initiatives by using a visual metrics hierarchy to communicate and demonstrate interdependencies across related digital initiatives.

“A key ingredient needed to accelerate delivery of digital benefits is accountability,” said Hill. “For example, if the enterprise undertakes a digital initiative to improve customer experience, with the financial goal of improving profit margins, then the CIO’s accountable partner is likely the CMO.”

CIOs should connect with functional leaders for each digital initiative to understand what ‘improvement’ means and how it can be measured. Creating a picture that reflects the hierarchy of technical and business outcome metrics for each initiative will help identify the chain of accountability that will collectively deliver the dividend in focus.

Contribute IT Talent to a Business-Led Fusion Team

While strategic engagement with business unit leaders is necessary to accelerate digital initiatives, the survey exposed an IT mindset of “go it alone” regarding solution delivery. For example, 77% of CIOs said that IT employees are primarily providing innovation and collaboration tools, compared with 18% who said non-IT personnel are providing these tools.

“Over-dependence on IT staff for digital delivery reflects a traditional mindset, which can impede agility,” said Sanchez Reina. “CIOs must embrace democratized digital delivery by design to accelerate time to value. Equipping and empowering those outside of IT – especially business technologists – to build digitalized capabilities, assets and channels can help achieve business goals faster.”

Loaning IT staff to fusion teams that combine business experts, business technologists and IT staff will catalyze a team that is focused on achieving digital business outcomes, while also opening the way for reciprocity, such as integrating subject-matter experts from the business into an IT-led fusion team.

Reduce the Talent Gap with Unconventional Resources

Many CIOs continue to struggle to hire and retain IT talent to accelerate digital initiatives. However, the survey identified numerous sources of technology talent that are untapped. For example, only 12% of enterprises use students (through internships and relationships with schools) to help develop technological capabilities and only 23% use gig workers.

“Talent shortages are among the greatest hindrances to digital,” said Sanchez Reina. “CIOs are often limited by policies related to preferred providers or employment contracts. They must stress to business and HR leadership that engaging unconventional talent sources can help accelerate the realization of digital dividends.”