The rapid evolution of online threats requires organizations to continuously adapt and enhance their security defenses. But according to market data from Cisco Systems Inc., a lot of companies aren’t keeping up.

The networking giant released a new installment of its Annual Cybersecurity Report today shows that many firms struggle to adopt modern security technologies due to budgetary limitations, talent shortages and incompatibility with existing infrastructure. Meanwhile, the traditional network protections tools that companies have in place are falling behind the curve. The problem is especially pronounced when it comes to incident response.

Some 65 percent of the respondents who participated in Cisco’s study said that their companies employ more than six security systems, but many admitted that dealing with threats is nonetheless a challenge. According to the report, the average organization investigates just 56 percent of the vulnerability alerts that appear in a given day and eventually remedies less than half of the problems its security staff deems relevant. Many threats end up slipping through the cracks as a result.

As part of its study, Cisco examined 130 organizations and found that a massive 75 percent suffered from adware infections. A pop-up here or there is not exactly the biggest of security threats, but as the company notes, malvertising is becoming more dangerous by the day.

The report highlights how hackers are embracing new tactics to cement traditional ways of combating malicious ads. One of the most alarming trends that Cisco has identified is the growing use of so-called brokers, redirect links that make it difficult for automatic detection mechanisms to trace malware-laden banners to their source. Meanwhile, the malware itself is also undergoing rapid evolution.

Cisco has found that three of the most popular exploit kits in 2016 all but vanished by November. Among them was the Angler framework, which raised alarms in the security community last June after its creators added capabilities for bypassing the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit in Windows.

Today’s study warns that hackers are switching to “more sophisticated and agile” kits with the potential to become a major threat in 2017. The dangerous new threats that will be facing companies this year suggests that the corporate world should brace itself for the same kind of large-scale breaches it witnessed 2016.

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