Cyber incidents hit 15% of global firms

Study cites dearth of investment in bolstering cybersecurity system

ISLAMABAD:

An international cybersecurity and digital privacy company has reported that 15% of companies globally have experienced cyber incidents due to insufficient cybersecurity investment.

It is alarming that critical infrastructure, oil and gas and energy organisations have suffered the biggest number of cyber incidents.

According to a recent study conducted by Kaspersky, 15% of companies across the world encountered cyber incidents owing to the dearth of investment in that critical area over the last two years.

When it came to companies’ finances, one in five admitted they did not have the budget for adequate cybersecurity measures.

Kaspersky undertook the study to discover opinions of IT security professionals working for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and other companies worldwide regarding the human impact on cybersecurity in a company. The telecommunications sector suffered 13% of cyber incidents due to budget constraints, while transport and logistics, and financial services’ companies each saw 8% of incidents.

When asked about the budget for cybersecurity measures, 78% of respondents said they were equipped to keep up with or even stay ahead of new threats.

However, 21% of companies were not doing so well while 18% reported that they didn’t have sufficient funds to protect the company’s infrastructure properly.

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At the same time, there were companies having no cost allocations at all for cybersecurity. As many as 3% claimed they didn’t have a dedicated budget for cyber protection needs.

According to the report, many companies were eager to take steps to strengthen their cybersecurity system over the next up to one and a half year.

One of the most popular areas of investment is threat detection software and training where 39% of companies plan to allocate budget for educational programmes for cybersecurity professionals and 38% for training general staff.

Other popular measures organisations plan to take soon are introducing endpoint protection software, hiring additional IT professionals, and adopting SaaS cloud solutions. “Today, companies must align cybersecurity investment with business strategy and consider cybersecurity as one of their business goals,” commented Ivan Vassunov, VP Corporate Products at Kaspersky, adding that challenges could be met through the use of various modern approaches and technologies.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2024.

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