Survey: dysfunction among network and cybersecurity teams results in breaches

The survey, which polled 200 network and cybersecurity professionals across Canada and the U.S., found several consequences for organizations where networking and cybersecurity teams have conflicting objectives, are managed in a siloed way and have unequal or incomplete network visibility.

According to the report, 86 per cent of respondents experienced at least one of the following due to a lack of close collaboration:

• Increase in security breaches and/or data loss
• Slow response to security events
• Finger pointing/blame game
• Loss of productivity
• Service downtime
• Inability to determine root cause of security events
• Cost increases

Both network and cybersecurity teams agree they should be collaborating more closely and understand the payoff to do so, the survey adds.

“The challenge,” said BlueCat CEO Michael Harris, “is that the network team’s mission is to ensure efficient and accurate traffic flow, while cybersecurity is tasked with inspecting suspicious traffic.”

“These objectives, which sometimes have teams working at cross-purposes, create hurdles to the organization’s overall success. To ensure both the security and functionality of the network, it is imperative network and cybersecurity teams agree upon and manage their responsibilities with common processes, and shared, integrated platforms,” Harris added.

Teams who collaborate well report higher preparedness for cybersecurity events, higher levels of trust and more, the study finds.

But only 37 per cent of cybersecurity teams report having complete network visibility, making it difficult for teams to collaborate.

The survey also found there is widespread competition for ownership of responsibilities like network policy enforcement, proactive threat prevention and detection, and resolution of security events.

A fully copy of the research report can be found here.