The Cybersecurity Perception Gap

Well, hello and welcome to today's episode of Cybercrime from the Frontlines.

It's great to have you with us here.

I'm Bruce Sussman, your host for this podcast episode.

And we're exploring the maybe unseen perception gaps that exist within your organization.

And if you're wondering how we came up with this topic, well, we're gonna put it on the screen right now for those of you who are watching the podcast and those of you listening, you'll hear it as well.

We did some research recently in our 2025 Bitdefender Cybersecurity Assessment Report.

And this is the question we asked.

How confident are you in your organization's ability to manage risks as the attack surface continues to grow? Interestingly, 45% of C-level respondents said they are very confident.

But among mid-level managers, that number drops to just 19%.

That's a big perception gap, right? Between up here and down here.

So what are the causes of this? What could the implications be for organizations? And how do we close the gap? We're going to talk about all those things with our guests here in the Bitdefender studio today.

And welcome, gentlemen.

Hi, Bruce.

Thank you for having me.

Yes, thank you for joining.

And I think a good place to start, as usual, would be some introductions.

Well, hello and welcome to today's episode of Cybercrime from the Frontlines.

It's great to have you with us here.

I'm Bruce Sussman, your host for this podcast episode.

And we're exploring the maybe unseen perception gaps that exist within your organization.

And if you're wondering how we came up with this topic, well, we're gonna put it on the screen right now for those of you who are watching the podcast and those of you listening, you'll hear it as well.

We did some research recently in our 2025 Bitdefender Cybersecurity Assessment Report.

And this is the question we asked.

How confident are you in your organization's ability to manage risks as the attack surface continues to grow? Interestingly, 45% of C-level respondents said they are very confident.

But among mid-level managers, that number drops to just 19%.

That's a big perception gap, right? Between up here and down here.

So what are the causes of this? What could the implications be for organizations? And how do we close the gap? We're going to talk about all those things with our guests here in the Bitdefender studio today.

And welcome, gentlemen.

Hi, Bruce.

Thank you for having me.

Yes, thank you for joining.

And I think a good place to start, as usual, would be some introductions.