Irish firms lag behind global peers in managing cyber risk, PwC finds

Irish companies lag behind their global counterparts in integrating cybersecurity into their risk management, new research by PwC has found.

A survey of 4,000 business and tech executives from 71 countries, including Ireland, found 17 per cent of Irish respondents strongly agreed that cybersecurity was fully part of their organisation’s overall risk management, compared to 41 per cent globally.

PwC Ireland cybersecurity and privacy partner Leonard McAuliffe said that as many organisations are racing to capture the value of AI, preparation for cyber risks “needs to become a business capability”.

“The survey finds many organisations are still underprepared for a rapidly evolving cyber landscape, and organisations that get this right will be better positioned to innovate with confidence while continuing to operate through disruption,” McAuliffe said.

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The results of the survey also showed only 23 per cent of Irish respondents strongly agreed their employer regularly conducted incident response exercises, compared with 41 per cent globally.

Against a backdrop of rapid advances in AI, 84 per cent of global security and finance leaders said they expect their cyber budgets to rise over the next 12 months.

Responses from Irish participants also indicated protection against AI-enabled attacks was a lower spending priority, as 34 per cent identified securing against AI-enabled attacks as a cyber spending priority compared with 46 per cent globally.

Irish executives showed they are wary of adopting autonomous AI tools as part of their cyber defence. Only 6 per cent said they would allow AI agents to act fully autonomously to help protect their systems versus 22 per cent globally.

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On a global basis, 29 per cent of companies said quantum-computing exposure was a cyber threat that their organisation is least prepared to combat in the next 12 months, and Ireland lags behind global counterparts.

Quantum computing is expected to break current encryption protocols as early as the 2030s, according to the PwC report, and only 6 per cent of Irish respondents said that they are implementing quantum-resistant security measures compared to 21 per cent globally.