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Enterprises Fear Disruption to Applications, Yet Don't Prioritize Security

The majority of organizations (nearly 70 percent) do not prioritize the protection of the applications that their business depend on — such as ERP and CRM systems — any differently than how low-value data, applications or services are secured, according to a new survey from CyberArk.

Respondents indicated that even the slightest downtime affecting business critical applications would be massively disruptive, with 61 percent agreeing that the impact would be severe.

Breaches affecting applications that are the lifeblood of business can result in punitive costs, with a 2018 report estimating the average cost of an attack on an ERP system at $5.5 million USD. The threat actors that enterprises face are formidable — organized crime was behind 50 percent of all breaches in 2018, with attacks using established tactics like privileges abuse to achieve their aims.

Despite the fact that more than half (56 percent) of organizations have experienced data loss, integrity issues or service disruptions affecting business critical applications in the previous two years, the survey found a large majority (72 percent) of respondents are confident that their organization can effectively stop all data security attacks or breaches at the perimeter. This brings to light a remarkable disconnect between where security strategy is focused and the business value of what is most important to the organization. An attacker targeting administrative privileges for these applications could cause significant disruption and could even halt business operations.

The survey also found that 74 percent of organizations indicated they have moved (or will move within two years) business critical applications to the cloud. A risk-prioritized approach to protecting these assets is necessary for this transition to be managed successfully. Further industry data shows that, globally, 69 percent of organizations are migrating data for popular ERP applications to the cloud.

“From banking systems and R&D to customer service and supply chain, all businesses in all verticals run on critical applications. Accessing and disrupting these applications is a primary target for attackers due to their day-to-day operational importance and the wealth of information that resides in them — whether they are on-premises or in the cloud,” said David Higgins, EMEA technical director at CyberArk. “CISOs must take a prioritized, risk-based approach that applies the most rigorous protection to these applications, securing in particular privileged access to them and assuring that, regardless of what attacks penetrate the perimeter, they continue to run uncompromised.”

Methodology: The independent survey was conducted among 1,450 business and IT decision makers, primarily from Western European economies.

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Enterprises Fear Disruption to Applications, Yet Don't Prioritize Security

The majority of organizations (nearly 70 percent) do not prioritize the protection of the applications that their business depend on — such as ERP and CRM systems — any differently than how low-value data, applications or services are secured, according to a new survey from CyberArk.

Respondents indicated that even the slightest downtime affecting business critical applications would be massively disruptive, with 61 percent agreeing that the impact would be severe.

Breaches affecting applications that are the lifeblood of business can result in punitive costs, with a 2018 report estimating the average cost of an attack on an ERP system at $5.5 million USD. The threat actors that enterprises face are formidable — organized crime was behind 50 percent of all breaches in 2018, with attacks using established tactics like privileges abuse to achieve their aims.

Despite the fact that more than half (56 percent) of organizations have experienced data loss, integrity issues or service disruptions affecting business critical applications in the previous two years, the survey found a large majority (72 percent) of respondents are confident that their organization can effectively stop all data security attacks or breaches at the perimeter. This brings to light a remarkable disconnect between where security strategy is focused and the business value of what is most important to the organization. An attacker targeting administrative privileges for these applications could cause significant disruption and could even halt business operations.

The survey also found that 74 percent of organizations indicated they have moved (or will move within two years) business critical applications to the cloud. A risk-prioritized approach to protecting these assets is necessary for this transition to be managed successfully. Further industry data shows that, globally, 69 percent of organizations are migrating data for popular ERP applications to the cloud.

“From banking systems and R&D to customer service and supply chain, all businesses in all verticals run on critical applications. Accessing and disrupting these applications is a primary target for attackers due to their day-to-day operational importance and the wealth of information that resides in them — whether they are on-premises or in the cloud,” said David Higgins, EMEA technical director at CyberArk. “CISOs must take a prioritized, risk-based approach that applies the most rigorous protection to these applications, securing in particular privileged access to them and assuring that, regardless of what attacks penetrate the perimeter, they continue to run uncompromised.”

Methodology: The independent survey was conducted among 1,450 business and IT decision makers, primarily from Western European economies.

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According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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