Mid-sized UK companies are not adequately protecting themselves from cyber security threats, not due to lack of investment in technology but through a lack of the dedicated, skilled resource needed to make the most of those tools, new research suggests.

The study, from IT managed services provider Coretx, found that 72 per cent of respondents have implemented a Security and Information Event Management (SIEM) solution, which combines data sources and presents security related information in an accessible form.

Organisations also regularly refresh other security solutions, for example firewalls, which 83 per cent of respondents had replaced with more modern technology within the last three years.

However, only four per cent had staff dedicated to monitoring, analysing and reporting security information created by a SIEM or other source and only six per cent had staff dedicated to acting on security reports.

With day-to-day security management falling to multi-tasking, generalist IT resources, it is perhaps not surprising that just 19 per cent of organisations monitor all IT logs that might contain security information. When potential threats are identified, only 13 per cent of organisations are communicating the intelligence to someone able to deal with it.

Merlin Gillespie, group strategy director at Coretx, said: “Many organisations must be spending a lot of money on the latest technology and then failing to recruit the people they need to use it. Analysing live data feeds to identify cyber-attacks is something general IT staff are unlikely to be appropriately skilled for. It’s also a relentless task.”

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