Company bosses are boosting their cybersecurity following an alarming increase in cyberattacks. — Photo courtesy of Kaspersky
Companies in the Asia Pacific plan to outsource cybersecurity in the next 12 to 18 months following an alarming increase in cyberattacks, a study commissioned by Kaspersky has found.
It said more than 77 per cent of companies in the region suffered at least one cyber incident in the last two years.
Some said the main reasons for cyber incidents occurring in their companies are a lack of necessary tools for threat detection (20 per cent) and a shortage of internal IT security staff (24 per cent).
Adrian Hia, managing director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky, said: “Businesses in APAC have been battling with shortages of cybersecurity professionals for years now. In fact, in 2022 it was reported that the region needs 2.1 million more security staff to meet the demand.
“Clearly, the result of our recent study put a definite number on how this gap can take a toll on enterprise security.
“For our part, we have been proactively fostering mutual partnerships with universities, governments and non-governmental organisations here with the shared goal of building a country’s cybersecurity capability and help develop the local cybersecurity talent pool in APAC.”
The respondents indicated that a variety of measures is needed to address cybersecurity gaps, with 32 per cent saying they would like to see more external specialists brought in.
It also appears that company plans are in line with their expectations: A quarter of organisations (34 per cent) plan to invest in third-party professional services, and 34 per cent of respondents are aiming to outsource their cybersecurity to MSPs/MSSPs (managed service providers/managed security service providers).
The most likely industries to invest in third-party services in the near future are critical infrastructure, energy and oil and gas.
At the same time many organisations also plan to invest in automation of their cybersecurity.
In the next 12 months more than half the businesses have concrete plans to instal software that automatically manages their cybersecurity, and another 15 per cent are discussing the subject.
Ivan Vassunov, vice president of corporate products at Kaspersky, said: “The automation and outsourcing of cybersecurity tasks are major areas that organizations are struggling with because of a lack of experts and alert fatigue can focus on.
“Turning to external experts, whether outsourcing, managing the whole cybersecurity system or adopting expert-level services to assist the IT Security department, is the optimal solution for many.” — VNS