Indian cos at higher risk of cyber-attack: Survey

In the first half of this year, the firm surveyed more than 3,600 businesses of all sizes and industries across Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, and Latin America

Hyderabad: THE risk of cyber-attacks has increased from the last year, according to Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity firm. As many as 73 per cent of the organisations in India report that they are likely to experience a data breach that impacts customer data in the next 12 months.

The cyber risk index (CRI) report from a survey carried out by Trend Micro, which measures the gap between respondent's cybersecurity preparedness versus their likeliness of being attacked. In the first half of 2021, the firm surveyed more than 3,600 businesses of all sizes and industries across Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, and Latin America.

The risk index is based on a numerical scale of -10 to 10, with -10 representing the highest level of risk. The current index for India stands at -0.69, which indicates an 'elevated risk'.

Vijendra Katiyar, Country Manager, India and SAARC, Trend Micro, said: "Once again we've found plenty to keep chief information security officers (CISO) awake at night. To lower cyber risk, organisations must be better prepared by going back to basics, identifying the critical data at risk, focusing on the threats that matter most to their business, and delivering multi-layered protection from connected platforms."

The report elaborated that 57 per cent said that it was somewhat to very likely that they would suffer serious cyber-attacks in the next 12 months, a total of 34 per cent suffered seven plus cyber-attacks that infiltrated their networks or systems. As many as 20 per cent had seven plus breaches of information assets, and 30 per cent of respondents said they had suffered seen plus breaches of customer data over the past year.

Larry Ponemon, CEO for the Ponemon Institute, said: "Trend Micro's CRI continues to be a helpful tool to help companies better understand their cyber risk. Businesses globally can use this resource to prioritise their security strategy and focus on their resources to manage their cyber risk. This type of resource is increasingly useful, as harmful security incidents continue to be a challenge for businesses of all sizes and industries."

In India, the top cyber threats highlighted in the report were Ransomware, watering hole attacks, Botnets, Malicious insiders, Advanced persistent threats (APT).