DESPITE businesses being exposed to more and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, more than half (57%) of Asia-Pacific businesses are still unsure if their cybersecurity defences are strong enough to combat hackers’ new strategies.
Such is the findings of the 2021 EY Global Information Security Survey (GISS) which further revealed that cyber spend of Asia-Pacific businesses remains low at just 0.05% of their annual revenue which is on par with the global average of 0.04%.
The low allocation of budget to counter cybersecurity risk is surprising given that almost three in four (73%) Asia-Pacific companies warn of an increase in the number of disruptive attacks such as ransomware over the last 12 months (from 47% in last year’s GISS).
“Businesses are planning a new wave of technology investments to thrive in the post-COVID-19 era,” EY Asia-Pacific cyber leader Richard Watson pointed out. “If cybersecurity is left out of investment discussions, the threat will continue to grow in the years to come.”
Furthermore, about two-fifths (41%) of businesses in Asia-Pacific expect to suffer a major breach that could have been avoided through better investment, higher than in the Americas (29%).
“Businesses should consider sharing the cost of cybersecurity across the business to support transformation,” Watson remarked.
Meanwhile, almost half of the respondents (48%) are more concerned than they have ever been about their company’s ability to manage cyber threats, higher than their counterparts in the Americas (41%).
Increased cyber risk
“The speed of change that businesses have had to adopt to this past year came with a heavy price,” EY Global Consulting Cybersecurity leader Kris Lovejoy remarked. “The need to rapidly transform to survive meant that security was often overlooked”
The survey further revealed that most cyber leaders in the region say they have never been as concerned as they are now about their ability to manage the cyber threat, slightly higher than the global average of 43%.
More than half (56%) say their organisations have sidestepped cyber processes to facilitate new requirements around remote or flexible working.
Touching on this, Lovejoy pointed out that the risks of simply moving on, especially as businesses look to maintain some of these working practices in the post-COVID-19 era, without addressing these cyber gaps, are very real and increasingly urgent.
Recent ransomware events, she added, only serve to underscore how critical immediate action is. – Aug 19, 2021
