Even faced with unprecedented challenges due to COVID-19, Government, Financial Services earn ‘most trusted’ status from Synack’s Attacker Resistance Score Metric

REDWOOD CITY, California, Sept. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The third edition of the Synack Trust Report, a data-driven analysis of cybersecurity preparedness across all sectors and industries, found that Government and Financial Service sectors globally are the most hardened against cyberattacks in 2020.

Government and Financial Services scored 15 percent and 11 percent higher, respectively, than all other industries in 2020. Government agencies earned the top spot in part due to reducing the time it takes to remediate exploitable vulnerabilities by 73 percent.

Throughout the year, both sectors faced unprecedented challenges due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, but still maintained a commitment to thorough and continuous security testing that lessened the risk from cyberattacks.

"It’s a tremendously tough time for all organizations amidst today’s uncertainties. Data breaches are the last thing they need right now. That’s why it’s more crucial than ever to quickly find and fix potentially devastating vulnerabilities before they cause irreparable harm," said Jay Kaplan, CEO and Co-Founder of Synack. "If security isn’t a priority, trust can evaporate in an instant."

The 2020 Trust Report is grounded in data from the patented Attacker Resistance Score (ARS)™ Metric, which drew information directly from tests conducted on the Synack Crowdsourced Security Platform from 2019 through July 2020 — right through the COVID-19 response period. Synack calculates a unique ARS metric between 0 and 100 for every asset, assessment and organization it tests. The calculation takes into account attacker cost, severity of findings and remediation efficiency. The higher the ARS, the more hardened assets are against attack.

"The 2020 Synack Trust Report is a must-read for anyone who has ever been asked by their C-Suite, CEO, or Board: ‘Can I trust our digital systems? And how do we compare to other companies?’" wrote Michael Coden, Global Leader Cybersecurity Practice, BCG Platinion, Boston Consulting Group, in his forward to the 2020 Trust Report. "The report makes it clear that companies surviving the continuous barrage of cyberattacks are the ones that frequently test as many of their digital assets as possible with the appropriate depth and breadth to the criticality of that asset."

Key 2020 Trust Report findings include:

The Government sector earned 61 — the highest rating

The chaos of 2020 added new hardship to many Government bodies, but security hasn’t necessarily suffered as many agencies have become more innovative and agile. Their ability to quickly remediate vulnerabilities drove this year’s top ranking.

Financial Services scored 59 amidst massive COVID-19 disruptions

Financial Services adapted quickly through the pandemic to help employees adjust to their new remote work realities and ensure customers could continue doing business. Continuous security testing played a significant role in the sector’s ARS.

Healthcare and Life Sciences scored 56 despite pandemic challenges

The rush to deploy apps to help with the COVID-19 recovery led to serious cybersecurity challenges for Healthcare and Life Sciences. Despite those issues, the sector had the third highest average score as research and manufacturing organizations stayed vigilant and continuously tested digital assets.

Severity of vulnerabilities found on the Synack platform increases

Twenty-eight percent of the vulnerabilities discovered by the Synack Red Team, the community of ethical hackers working on the Synack platform, were considered high, very high or critical. Synack leads the industry in finding the most critical and dangerous vulnerabilities in customers’ digital assets and apps, giving them the insight necessary to prevent attacks.

ARS scores increase 23 percent from continuous testing

For organizations that regularly release updated code or deploy new apps, point-in-time security analysis will not pick up potentially catastrophic vulnerabilities. A continuous approach to testing helps ensure vulnerabilities are found and fixed quickly, resulting in a higher ARS metric.

The full Synack 2020 Trust Report explores the ARS metric for all global sectors. Visit www.synack.com to download the report for free and learn how the most trusted brands in the world measure their risk.

About Synack:

Synack is the world’s most trusted crowdsourced security testing platform. Its crowdsourced penetration testing is powered by the world’s most skilled and trusted ethical hackers and augmented by AI-enabled technology to give customers the best of human intelligence and machine intelligence. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with regional offices around the world, Synack protects leading global banks, federal agencies, DoD classified assets, and more than $1 trillion in Fortune 500 revenue. A 4-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company, Synack was founded in 2013 by former NSA security experts Jay Kaplan, CEO, and Dr. Mark Kuhr, CTO.

For more information, please visit www.synack.com.

“It’s more crucial than ever to quickly find and fix potentially devastating vulnerabilities before they cause irreparable harm. If security isn’t a priority, trust can evaporate in an instant." — Jay Kaplan, CEO and Co-Founder of Synack

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