A new report from cybersecurity firm Corelight has shed light on the growing fear of cyber-attacks among European IT decision makers (ITDMs), finding that more than half (54%) admit it keeps them awake at night.

Corelight’s report, Productive Paranoia – How Threat Hunters Can Turn Their Fear of the Unknown into a Positive, reveals that this concern rises to 63% among smaller companies with between 100-249 employees.

The research, based on insights from senior ITDMs across the UK, France, and Germany, highlights the anxiety caused by the rapidly changing threat landscape, with the unpredictability of cyber-threats remaining a significant challenge.

Compounding those fears is the strain IT leaders are under from those further up the ladder. According to the research, 86% of IT decision makers are feeling increased pressure from executive leadership since 2020.

Among the top challenges ITDMs face in scaling up their cyber-readiness are remote working conditions (51%), supply chain threats (67%), keeping up with the latest threats (49%), and a lack of access to threat intelligence (68%).

Despite these challenges, there is a clear drive to address anxiety and build resilience against new and unknown threats. More than three-quarters (78%) of respondents are committed to enhancing their SecOps capabilities, but significant barriers remain, including the fast-changing threat landscape (44%) and a shortage of skilled security team members (41%).

The survey also sheds light on the ideal security approach, which respondents believed to be a blend of people and technology. Nearly half (45%) of the organisations already employ dedicated threat hunters, with risk-based threat hunting and threat intelligence-based strategies being the most popular (both 60%).

With the evolving threat landscape, however, most IT leaders don’t think human efforts alone are enough.

With more and more cybercriminals using artificial intelligence, 89% of ITDMs are now either using GenAI themselves or planning to integrate it into their solution stacks, and when asked about how best to improve security scenarios by 2033, the most popular answer was “AI & automation for threat hunting and prevention” (50%). 

European IT leaders are more enthusiastic about the prospect of enhancing their SecOps capabilities with GenAI, saying the technology will help mitigate attacks based on past tactics (75%), improve threat detection (71%), and shorten the breach cycle (63%). 

To take advantage of this, ITDMs plan to implement several initiatives in the coming year, including validating GenAI output, especially for threat detection algorithms (58%), hiring talent to incorporate GenAI capabilities into solutions (62%), and guarding against AI-generated false information (60%).

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A majority (68%) also said that they would train more to hunt threats with and without GenAI, to avoid over-reliance on the technology, and 59% said they would work to guard against external tampering of GenAI algorithms.

“Ambiguity and uncertainty are not just occasional challenges but the norm in security operations,” says Matt Ellison, technical director of EMEA region at Corelight. “The world is filled with uncertainty, but by enhancing and upskilling in-house talent with AI and automation, IT leaders can turn their paranoia about the future into a strategic advantage”

“This is why embracing what we term ‘productive paranoia’ is crucial. By combining advanced AI technology with human intelligence, organisations can proactively manage threats and build resilience.”