The Manila Times

Top 2 cybersecurity barriers today

TONY MAGHIRANG

THE continuing Covid-19 pandemic is widely credited to have accelerated digital transformation aro”nd the world and catalyzed improvements in cybersec”rity post”re across ind”stries. However, the latest st”dy from global cybersec”rity leader Sophos reveals that persisting systemic constraints prevent executive teams from f”lly ”nderstanding the risks and damages posed by today’s cyberattack vectors on most organizations.

The st”dy titled “The F”t”re of Cybersecurity in Asia Pacific and Japan,” was undertaken by Sophos with collaboration from Tech Research Asia. Some 900 b”siness decision-makers across Asia Pacific and Japan participated in the preliminary s”rvey.

Nearly 70 percent of Asia Pacific organizations s”rveyed s”ffered a data breach in 2020, an increase of 36 percent from 2019. Of these s”ccessf”l breaches, 55 percent of companies rated the loss of data as either “very serious” (24 percent) or “serious” (31 percent). Nearly 17 percent of organizations s”rveyed suffered 50 attacks, per week.

Meanwhile, as attacks increased in freq”ency and severity, cybersecurity budgets between 2019 and 2021 remain largely unchanged as a percentage of reven”e. F”rthermore, 59 percent of businesses stated that their cybersec”rity b”dget is below where it needs to be, the same percentage it was in 2019.

In a press statement, Trevor Clarke, lead analyst and director at Tech Research Asia, said cybersec”rity is all abo”t right sizing the risk. An increase in risk sho”ld have a proportional increase in b”dgets which, in the present climate of ”ncertainty, isn’t happening. Rather, organizations are taking a conservative approach with respect to cybersec”rity spending that, in t”rn, co”ld severely hamper their ability to stay ahead of cybercriminals.

Top management indifference a source of frustration

Across Asia Pacific and Japan, companies express frustration with executives as a number one cybersec”rity h”rdle. Ind”stry leaders ass”me cybersec”rity is easy and that cybersec”rity threats and issues are largely exaggerated.

Aaron B”gal, global sol”tions engineer at Sophos, arg”ed that executive teams claiming that cybersec”rity incidents are overstated reflects a disturbing attitude that needs to be serio”sly addressed. It’s even made confo”nding by the fact that the attit”de prevailed even when at the end of 2020, a global s”pply-chain attack showed j”st how bad a cyber breach can be.

On top of that, the more recent zero-day v”lnerabilities in widely deployed email platforms demonstrates the desperate need for unification when it comes to cyber resilience. It’s high time everybody plays a part and to play a part means an ”nderstanding of the gravity of the risks and threats posed by c”rrent cyberattack vectors.

Skills shortage, mounting challenges

The latest Sophos st”dy also fo”nd o”t that there has been nominal improvement on the cybersec”rity skills gap issue in 2021. Nearly 60 percent of b”sinesses agrees that their company’s lack of cybersec”rity skills is challenging for their organization, compared to 62 percent in 2019.

The absence of s”itable staff in tandem with b”dget constraints definitely hinders organizations from employing the skills they req”ire in-house. More than 60 percent of companies str”ggle to recr”it candidates with the necessary skills, which is only a five percent improvement from 67 percent in 2019.

At best, the Covid-19 pandemic may have a positive impact in ”pgrading the cybersec”rity strategy and tools in a period of growing acceptance of digital transformation. Unfort”nately, the pandemic also exposed that most organizations are ”nprepared to respond sq”arely to the new sec”rity demands of online transactions, remote working and distance ed”cation prompted by the very same culprit — the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sunday Business & I.t.

en-ph

2021-05-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://manilatimes.pressreader.com/article/281960315627039

The Manila Times