Austin, Texas, USA, May 21, 2025
Futurum Research Reflects the State of Cybersecurity Incidents, With Optimizing Cyber Resilience in the Face of Cloud-Related Threats Top of Mind
Futurum Research has released its 1H 2025 Cybersecurity Decision Maker Survey data, revealing a stark picture of the cyber threat landscape. In this latest survey of cybersecurity purchase decision makers across industries and regions, 80% of organizations reported experiencing at least one significant cyber incident within the past 12 months. These findings underscore today’s digital enterprises’ operational and data-related risks and point to critical decision-making challenges for security teams.
Cloud security incidents emerged as the most commonly cited incident type, with 31% of respondents pointing to them as a top concern, followed closely by data breaches or exfiltration (28%) and ransomware attacks (26%). Despite slight variation in attack vectors, the downstream consequences of these events were strikingly consistent: 40% of respondents reported data loss or compromise as the most significant impact of their worst incident, while 37% cited system or operational downtime.
“Cybersecurity is no longer about perimeter defense—it’s about managing persistent risk in an environment where cloud and data-centric threats dominate,” said Fernando Montenegro, Vice President at Futurum Research. “The data confirms that organizations are not just experiencing incidents—they’re experiencing meaningful business disruption and loss. That elevates the importance of strategic investment in detection, response, and resilience capabilities.”
The latest findings reveal that while the types of attacks vary, the implications for business operations and data protection are severe and far-reaching. With cloud platforms playing a central role in modern IT architectures, the high prevalence of cloud-related security incidents signals an urgent need for more robust governance and visibility across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
“The fact that nearly one in three organizations faced a cloud-related security event reinforces the complexity of securing modern architectures,” said Krista Case, Research Director at Futurum Research. “We’re seeing security leaders grappling with risk across hybrid environments, while at the same time dealing with data exposure and operational continuity issues. It’s a tough balancing act, and this data helps illuminate where the pressure points really are.”
These insights also raise important questions about resource allocation, vendor prioritization, and the evolving expectations placed on CISOs and security teams. As the cybersecurity landscape continues to shift, understanding where peer organizations are seeing impact—and how they’re responding—is critical for guiding board-level discussions and tactical decisions alike.
The data release comes as many organizations are actively reviewing their security postures and planning investments for the second half of the year. With this new benchmark, security leaders have a timely opportunity to assess not just whether their defenses are adequate but also whether their incident response and business continuity strategies are keeping pace with a threat environment that shows no sign of slowing down.
Figure 1: The Current State of Cyber Incidents
Read more in the “1H 2025 Cybersecurity Decision Maker Survey Report” on the Futurum Intelligence Platform.
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Author Information
Fernando Montenegro serves as the Vice President & Practice Lead for Cybersecurity at The Futurum Group. In this role, he leads the development and execution of the Cybersecurity research agenda, working closely with the team to drive the practice's growth. His research focuses on addressing critical topics in modern cybersecurity. These include the multifaceted role of AI in cybersecurity, strategies for managing an ever-expanding attack surface, and the evolution of cybersecurity architectures toward more platform-oriented solutions.
Before joining The Futurum Group, Fernando held senior industry analyst roles at Omdia, S&P Global, and 451 Research. His career also includes diverse roles in customer support, security, IT operations, professional services, and sales engineering. He has worked with pioneering Internet Service Providers, established security vendors, and startups across North and South America.
Fernando holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and various industry certifications. Although he is originally from Brazil, he has been based in Toronto, Canada, for many years.
With a focus on data security, protection, and management, Krista has a particular focus on how these strategies play out in multi-cloud environments. She brings approximately 15 years of experience providing research and advisory services and creating thought leadership content. Her vantage point spans technology and vendor portfolio developments; customer buying behavior trends; and vendor ecosystems, go-to-market positioning, and business models. Her work has appeared in major publications including eWeek, TechTarget and The Register.
Prior to joining The Futurum Group, Krista led the data protection practice for Evaluator Group and the data center practice of analyst firm Technology Business Research. She also created articles, product analyses, and blogs on all things storage and data protection and management for analyst firm Storage Switzerland and led market intelligence initiatives for media company TechTarget.
