The necessity for stronger digital resilience and cybersecurity is growing against a rapidly-changing European threat landscape. As technology becomes more complex with the artificial intelligence (AI) boom at the forefront, businesses are prioritising strengthening cybersecurity and modernising to be better prepared to face threats. Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are also getting more involved in strategic planning.
PwC's report "2025 Global Digital Trust Insights" highlights crucial gaps that companies should address to attain cyber resilience.
2025 Global Digital Trust Insights Survey Insights for the Government and Public Services
Key findings and insights from the Government and Public Services sector, where over 160 respondents participated with a notably higher representation of business leaders compared to tech leaders, include:
Top Concerns: Key threats identified are hack-and-leak operations (42%), third-party data breaches (38%), and cloud vulnerabilities (36%).
Preparedness Gaps: Only 36% feel prepared for hack-and-leak operations, and just 28% for social engineering threats, including deep fakes and disinformation (28%).
CEO Involvement: In the public sector, CEOs are more likely to become actively engaged in cybersecurity and privacy matters only after a major incident or breach has occurred. This approach was reported by 35% of respondents — slightly higher than in other industries (32%)
Data-Related Challenges: Significant data issues—such as poor quality, gaps, inconsistency, incompatibility, and complexity—hinder effectiveness of assessment of potential financial impacts from cyber risks. These challenges were reported by 55% of respondents in this sector, compared to 44% across other sectors.
About the survey
The 2025 Global Digital Trust Insights is a survey of 4,042 business and technology leaders conducted from May to July 2024.
Respondents operate in a range of industries, including 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 based in 77 countries globally. There were 230 survey participants in Central and Eastern Europe from countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and other countries.
The Global Digital Trust Insights Survey was previously known as the Global State of Information Security Survey (GSISS). Now in its 27th year, it’s the longest-running annual survey on cybersecurity trends. It’s also the largest survey in the cybersecurity industry and the only one that draws participation from senior business executives, not just security and technology executives.
PwC Research, PwC’s global Centre of Excellence for market research and insight, conducted this survey.
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