Cisco

52 STATS4 REPORTS

All Statistics

72% of all organizations surveyed are at least moderately prepared to control and secure agentic AI systems.

AIAgentic AI

75% of Pacesetters (the most AI-ready group) report having the capacity to fully secure agentic AI systems that make decisions independently.

AIAgentic AI

84% of Pacesetters (most AI-ready group) control agent actions with guardrails and live monitoring vs 24% of all companies.

AI

Less than a third (31%) of organizations surveyed report that they are fully equipped to control and secure agentic AI systems.

AIAgentic AI

87% of Pacesetters (most AI-ready group) report awareness of AI-specific threats, compared to 42% of all companies.

AIAI threats

84% of Pacesetters (most AI-ready group) report full capability with end-to-end encryption for sensitive data, versus 30% of all companies.

AIEncryption

55% of organizations surveyed prioritize defending models and data from tampering.

AITampering

74% of Pacesetters (most AI-ready group) report full capability with dynamic & granular access controls for AI systems and datasets, versus 27% of all companies.

AI

Only 29% of all companies have fully integrated AI into security and identity systems, compared to 62% of Pacesetters (most AI-ready group).

AISecurity and identity system

81% of Pacesetters (most AI-ready group) report full capability to detect and prevent unauthorized tampering, compared to 29% of all companies.

AIDetectionPreventionTampering

51% of organizations surveyed focus on recruiting the right talent to manage AI-specific cybersecurity threats.

AITalentSkillsAI threats

Talent gaps are most acute in the area of cybersecurity for AI, affecting 60% of all companies surveyed.

AITalentSkills

61% say secure networking is critical.

Network

94% believe an improved network will enhance their cybersecurity posture.

Network

One severe outage per business per year, often driven by factors including cyberattacks, adds up to $160B globally.

Network

Major network outages are often driven by congestion, cyberattacks, and misconfigurations.

Network

98% say secure networking is important to their operations and growth.

Network

61% say secure networking is critical.

Network

94% believe an improved network will enhance their cybersecurity posture.

Network

One severe outage per business per year, often driven by factors including cyberattacks, adds up to $160B globally.

Network

71% of respondents anticipate business disruptions from cyber incidents within the next 12 to 24 months.

Security incident

96% of organizations plan to upgrade their IT infrastructure.

IT infrastructure

86% of organizations have experienced AI-related security incidents in the last year.

AISecurity incident

Only 45% allocate more than 10% of their IT budget to cybersecurity. This allocation is down 8% year-over-year.

Budget

Only 4% of organizations worldwide have achieved a 'Mature' level of cybersecurity readiness. This is a slight increase from last year's Index, in which 3% of organizations worldwide were designated as Mature.

MaturityResilience

84% of organizations face increased security risks as employees access networks from unmanaged devices within hybrid work models.

VisibilityHybrid work

Over 77% of organizations report that their complex security infrastructures are impeding their ability to respond swiftly and effectively to threats. These infrastructures are often dominated by the deployment of more than ten point security solutions

IT infrastructure

Only 49% of respondents are confident their employees fully understand AI related threats.

AISecurity awareness

60% of organizations lack confidence in detecting unregulated AI deployments (shadow AI).

AIGen AIShadow AI

70% of organizations use AI for response and recovery.

AIResponseRecovery

89% of organizations use AI to understand threats better.

AI

58% of respondents view external threats (like malicious actors and state-affiliated groups) as more significant than internal threats (42%).

Security incidentCyber attack

85% of organizations use AI for threat detection.

AIThreat detection

51% of employees are using approved third-party GenAI tools.

AIGen AI

86% of organizations continue to face the challenge of a shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals. More than half of these organizations report having more than ten positions to fill.

TalentSkills shortage

Only 48% believe their teams fully grasp how malicious actors are using AI to execute sophisticated attacks.

AI

Nearly half of organizations (49%) suffered cyberattacks in the last year.

Security incident

22% of employees have unrestricted access to public GenAI.

AIGen AI

60% of IT teams are unaware of employee interactions with GenAI.

AIGen AIVisibility

64% of respondents worry about inadvertently sharing sensitive information publicly or with competitors.

Data protectionData exposure

Nearly half of respondents admit to inputting personal employee or non-public data into GenAI tools.

AIGen AIData exposure

An overwhelming 99% of respondents anticipate reallocating resources from privacy budgets to AI initiatives in the future.

AIGen AIBudgetPrivacy

63% of respondents are very familiar with Generative AI (GenAI).

AIGen AI

Among those aware of their country's privacy laws, 81% feel confident in their ability to protect their data, compared to just 44% of those unaware of such laws.

PrivacyLegislationComplianceData protection

The 2024 Cisco AI Readiness Index reveals that IT budget allocations are anticipated to nearly double in the coming year as companies work to safely deploy AI technology

BudgetAI

86% of privacy and security professionals support privacy legislation, recognising its positive impact on business operations.

PrivacyLegislationCompliance

96% of organisations report that the returns of privacy significantly outweigh the investments.

PrivacyLegislationCompliance

In the 2024 Cisco Consumer Privacy Survey, most global consumers (53%) said they are aware of their country's privacy laws.

PrivacyLegislationCompliance

96% of privacy and security professionals confirm that privacy investments provide returns exceeding costs.

PrivacyLegislationCompliance

90% of organisations see local storage as inherently safer.

Local storage