Nearly four-fifths (77%) of organizations expect their cyber budget to increase over the coming year as organizations cite unpreparedness to an ever-expanding surface of cyber vulnerabilities, according to PwC’s 2025 Global Digital Trust Insights survey.
The survey, which obtained key insigths from 4,042 business and tech executives from across 77 countries and territories, reveals that just 2% of firms surveyed have implemented cyber resilience across their organization, even as over three-fifths (66%) of tech leaders rank cyber as the primary risk their organization is prioritizing for mitigation during the coming 12 months.
This comes as the average cost of a typical data breach across all respondents is $3.3M.
As organizations increasingly operate across digital platforms, two-thirds (67%) note GenAI has increased their attack surface in the past year.
This year’s survey findings pinpoint that what concerns organizations most is what they’re least prepared for.
The main four cyber threats found most worrying— cloud-related threats (42%), hack-and-leak operations (38%), third-party breaches (35%) and attacks on connected products (33%) — are the same one’s security professionals feel least prepared to handle.
Sean Joyce, Global Cyber & Privacy Leader, PwC US, said that cyber resilience is everyone’s responsibility, from the boardroom to the employee.
Therefore, we must hold each other accountable and ensure we address emerging risks by leveraging technology, practicing foundational cybersecurity principles, and investing in resources that will secure the future of the organization.
As firms contend with cyber security concerns, almost four-fifths (78%) of leaders surveyed have increased their investment in GenAI over the last year, with 72% increasing their risk management investment in AI governance.
This comes as two-thirds (67%) of security professionals note GenAI has expanded the cyber-attack surface over the last year, ahead of other technologies like cloud technology (66%), connected products (58%), operational technology (54%) and quantum computing (42%).
While harnessing GenAI remains vital to cyber resilience strategies, organizations face key challenges when integrating the tech, with existing systems/processes (39%) and the absence of standardized internal policies governing its use (37%).
Despite the clear threats and a lack of preparedness, the survey findings highlight organizations are taking action.
Over three-quarters (77%) expect their cyber budget to increase over the coming year, with nearly half (48%) of business professionals prioritizing data protection and data trust as the top cyber investment over the next year.
Tech professonals, meanwhile, note cloud security (34%) remains their top-priority. Almost one-third (30%) of organizations expect cyber budgets to increase by 6-10% next year, while one-fifth (20%) expect budgets to increase by 11% or more.
There is also a clear cyber security imperative.
Organizations cite investment in cybersecurity as a key differentiator for competitive advantage, with 57% citing customer trust and 49% citing brand integrity and loyalty as primary drivers for such investment.
In the backdrop, cyber regulations are also driving investment – with 96% reporting such regulations to have increased their cyber investment in the last 12 months.
The 2025 Global Digital Trust Insights is a survey of 4,042 business and technology executives conducted in May through July 2024.
A quarter of the executives are from large companies with US$5 billion or more in revenues.
Respondents are said to be operating in a range of industries, such as industrials and services (21%); tech, media, telecom (20%); financial services (19%); retail and consumer markets (17%); energy, utilities and resources (11%); health (7%) and government and public services (4%).
Respondents are reportedly based in 77 different countries and territories.