Less than three in 10 (28%) have implemented robust cyber resilience actions across their organisations compared to a third (33%) of companies globally, the 2025 PwC digital trust insights survey shows.

The professional services giant said the difference in terms of cyber resilience between Irish and international firms could lead to significant disruptions in future.

Globally, the estimated cost of the average data breach is €3.06m.

Two-thirds (66%) of Irish firms are planning to increase their cyber budget compared to 77% globally, but a higher proportion of Irish companies (74% versus 57%) are prioritising cyber risk mitigation in the year ahead.

Cybersecurity was also ahead of other risks being prioritised by Irish businesses for mitigation such as digital and technology risks (48%), inflation (42%), environmental risks (34%) and macroeconomic volatility (18%).

Third-party breaches (48%) are the number one cybersecurity threat concerning Irish organisations for the second year in a row ahead of ransomware (42%) and cloud-related threats (40%).

Globally, the top cyber threats are cloud-related (42%), hack-and-leak operations (38%) and third-party breaches (35%). 

A total of 4,042 business and tech executives across 71 countries, including Ireland, were surveyed on how the technology and security landscape is evolving for the study. 

“The survey highlights that despite the high cost of cyber breaches, less than one in three Irish organisations have implemented robust cyber resilience actions across their businesses," said Leonard McAuliffe, cybersecurity partner at PwC Ireland.

"At the same time, they state that they are planning to prioritise cyber risk mitigation in the next 12 months, but their planned investment is behind their global peers.

"Irish companies need to prioritise cyber risk investment even more to safeguard their organisations from cyber attacks.”

Globally, four-fifths (78%) of global respondents have increased their investment in GenAI in the past year.

GenAI is being prioritised in cyber defence activities such as threat detection (44%), threat intelligence (39%) and malware and phishing detection (38%).

At the same time, GenAI (68%) has increased cyber-attack vulnerabilities in the last 12 months, ahead of other emerging technologies such as cloud technology. 

Notably, 39% of global respondents cited a lack of trust in GenAI by internal stakeholders and difficulties in integrating GenAI with existing systems and processes.

Other challenges when incorporating the technology include inadequate internal controls and risk management (38%) and a lack of standardised internal policies governing the use of GenAI (37%).

Organisations surveyed cited investment in cybersecurity as a key differentiator for competitive advantage with over half of Irish respondents viewing cybersecurity as crucial for customer trust (57%) and brand integrity and loyalty (50%).

Over a quarter (26%) of Irish respondents expect cyber budgets to increase by 11% or more in the year ahead compared to 20% globally.

Areas being prioritised include data protection/data trust (48%), modernisation of technology (43%) and ongoing security training (34%). 

Fewer Irish respondents compared with global counterparts are either extremely or very confident in their organisation’s ability to be compliant with key new cyber regulations.

Some 54% of Irish firms are extremely/very confident about their ability to handle the EU Network and Information Security Directive (NIS2) (64% globally) compared to 50% regarding the EU AI Act (56% globally), and 42% who said so about the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) (55% globally). 

Cyber regulations are also driving investment, with 96% of global respondents reporting such regulations to have increased their cyber investment in the last 12 months. 

"It is clear that organisations which invest appropriately in cybersecurity have a competitive advantage compared to those who do not," said Moira Cronin, digital risk partner at PwC Ireland.

"The survey highlights that GenAI is a useful tool for cyber defence especially for threat detection. And while Irish companies have more to do to be compliant with upcoming cyber regulations, there is overwhelming consensus that cyber regulations are also driving investment.” 

(Pic: Getty Images)