According to a report from CompTIA, cybersecurity leaders struggle with conflicting challenges and interests. A majority of business and technology professionals feel that the overall state of cybersecurity is improving, both generally and within their organizations, according to the report. At the same time, companies are capturing far more data, creating new privacy implications for customers and operational risk for their internal workflows.

Organizations are responding on each of these fronts. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is viewed as a tool that can help manage the growing complexity of cybersecurity. There is a heightened commitment to workforce education, including training for all staff and support for certification for technical professionals. Risk management and zero trust practices are gaining a larger footprint.

Threat focus areas for organizations include malware, cited by 40% of U.S. respondents, ransomware (33%), firmware hacking (31%), IoT-based attacks (31%), hardware-based attacks (31%) and phishing (30%). The potential damage from an attack can be catastrophic. Among U.S. respondents, cybersecurity incidents had a severe impact at 22% of organizations, and a moderate impact at 43%.

Read the full report here.