With THE increase in technology adoption among Indian businesses, we are also seeing a rapid increase in cybercrime and growing sophistication in cyber espionage. Cisco’s latest cybersecurity study shows companies continue to be targeted with a variety of techniques that range from phishing and ransomware to supply chain and social engineering attacks. And while they are building defenses against these attacks, they still struggle to defend themselves, slowed down by their own complex security postures.
Shockingly, only 4% of organisations in India have the ‘Mature’ level of readiness needed to be resilient against today’s cybersecurity risks, according to Cisco’s 2024 Cybersecurity Readiness Index. The global figure is even more dismal at a paltry 3%. Readiness is critical as 82% of respondents said a cybersecurity incident is likely to disrupt their business in the next 12 to 24 months. The good news is companies are taking action to address this as almost all (99%) companies expect to increase their cybersecurity budgets in the next 12 months.
Unravelling hidden dangers
The survey, which covered more than 8,000 private sector security and business leaders across 30 global markets, classified the companies into four stages of readiness: Beginner, Formative, Progressive and Mature. The cost of being unprepared can be substantial, as 74% of respondents said they experienced a cybersecurity incident in the last 12 months, and 55% of those affected said it cost them at least $300,000.
“Today’s threat scenario is more complicated than ever, and organisations are struggling to maintain a foothold. Billions of users, devices, and IoT devices are connecting to enterprise networks, cloud applications, and data at a scale unlike anything we have seen in the past. We cannot underestimate the threat posed by our own overconfidence,” Jeetu Patel, executive vice-president and general manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco told FE.
“India is poised to be one of the largest economies in the world. If the goal of $5 trillion by 2027 is met, it’ll be the third largest economy. So, we want to make sure that the core infrastructure for connectivity, for security, for people communicating and collaborating with each other, all the foundational elements need to be in place,” he added.
Rebooting old methods
As per the Cisco study, the traditional approach of adopting multiple cybersecurity point solutions hasn’t delivered effective results, as 88% of respondents admitted that having multiple point solutions slowed down their team’s ability to detect, respond and recover from incidents. This raises significant concerns as 78% of firm’s said they have deployed 10 or more point solutions in their security stacks, while 38% said they have 30 or more.
Unsurprisingly, the talent gap persists. There are severe talent shortages, with 91% of companies highlighting it as an issue. In fact, 59% of companies said they had more than 10 roles related to cybersecurity unfilled in their organisation at the time of the survey.
On the meteoric rise of generative AI, Samir Kumar Mishra, director, Security Business, Cisco India & SAARC, said, “Companies must ensure that AI is integrated into frontline defenses as part of their overall cybersecurity strategy to fortify their defenses against evolving threats.”
