Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on November 24, 2021
4 min readLast updated: January 28, 2026
Deloitte's survey highlights a rise in cyberattacks due to digital transformation, with companies investing heavily in cybersecurity and adopting Zero Trust strategies.
Amid the acceleration of digital transformation, 69% of global leaders surveyed noted a significant increase in cyberattacks at their companies this year. However, despite the elevated risk environment, leaders plan to continue to invest heavily in digital transformation—with 94% of chief financial officer (CFO) respondents looking to move their financial systems or ERP to the cloud. That’s according to a new Deloitte Global survey which reveals that while there is no simple solution, there are a number of measures, which, when taken together, can enable organizations to embed cyber in every aspect of their business.
Deloitte Global’s 2021 Future of Cyber Survey analyzes responses from nearly 600 global C-level executives who have visibility into the cybersecurity functions of their organizations, with the hope of increasing communication around embedding cyber into the core of every business, while providing insights on how organizations can increase visibility into complex technological ecosystems and implement best practices to better prepare for an unpredictable cyber future.
“Over the last year, businesses in the Middle East and globally have been working overtime to remain competitive amid rapid technological change as accelerated digital transformation has drastically increased organizations’ vulnerability to cyberattacks,” says Tariq Ajmal Deloitte Middle East Cyber Leader. “As the complexities of integrated environments continue to grow, leaders must prioritize incorporating cyber into every part of their business or risk the consequences of inadequate cyber protections.”
Digital transformation has heightened the need for cyber strategies
With more than half of businesses experiencing an increase in threats to their organizations throughout 2020, the risks have never been higher as the shift to remote and hybrid working becomes more common for businesses worldwide. Organizations are continuing to face challenges balancing investments in digital transformations to remain competitive while protecting their systems from potential breaches. A clear plurality of the chief information officers (CIOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) surveyed (41%) acknowledge that transformation and gaining visibility across increasingly complex hybrid ecosystems is the greatest challenge they face.
The wave of Zero Trust
In building a technology-forward, protected enterprise, Deloitte Global’s survey suggests the areas causing CIOs and CISOs the most significant challenge in managing cyber risk are transformation/hybrid IT (41%) and cyber hygiene (26%). As a result, companies are leveraging Zero Trust—a set of architectural guidelines that are based on the fundamental principle of “never trust, always verify”—to bridge the gap between business, IT and cyber domains reducing operational complexity and simplifying ecosystem integration. Businesses that leverage Zero Trust are leading the way in organizational change to better enable digital transformation by building security infrastructures to handle the speed of these transformations.
Investing in cyber means investing in the CISO
With hackers becoming savvier, organizations are more inclined to increase their cyber defense budgets. Among the survey respondents, almost 75% of leaders with more than US$30 billion in revenue reported they will spend more than US$100 million on cybersecurity protections this year. While these investments are being relatively evenly spread to broadly mitigate risk, we learned that greater attention is being given to threat intelligence, detection and monitoring; cyber transformation; and data security.
Over the next three years, CIOs and CISOs will continue to prioritize cyber. Respondents ranked security capabilities (64%), enhancing privacy capabilities (59%), demonstrating compliance capabilities (50%), and improving business efficiency and intelligence (45%) as the drivers for their adoption of emerging technologies.
“Despite the challenges ahead, one thing is for certain: basic, hygienic cybersecurity systems are fundamental in protecting organizations in the Middle East and globally from the rapidly increasing potential for ransomware attacks,” adds Ajmal. “Businesses that make strategic organizational, cultural, and operational changes within their organization will find success in embedding cyber into the core of their business, ultimately building future resilience.”
For more information and to view the full results of Deloitte Global’s 2021 Future of Cyber Survey, click here.
Methodology
The Deloitte 2021 Future of Cyber Survey, conducted by both Deloitte Global and Wakefield Research, polled nearly 600 C-level executives about cybersecurity at companies with at least US$500 million in annual revenue including nearly 200 CISOs, 100 CIOs, 100 CEOs, 100 CFOs, and 100 CMOs between 6 June 6 – 24 August 2021, using an online survey.
The article discusses the increase in cyberattacks driven by digital transformation, based on Deloitte's survey.
Companies are investing heavily in cybersecurity and adopting strategies like Zero Trust to manage risks.
They face challenges in managing transformation and maintaining cyber hygiene in complex hybrid ecosystems.
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