Insufficient investment: 15pc of companies experienced cyber incidents globally in last two years

ISLAMABAD: Around 15 percent of companies globally have experienced cyber incidents due to insufficient cybersecurity investment in the last two years.

According to a latest study by Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company, alarmingly, critical infrastructure, oil & gas and energy organisations suffered the biggest number of cyber incidents due to improper budget allocation. And when it comes to companies’ finances globally, one-in-five admit they do not have the budget for adequate cybersecurity measures.

Kaspersky conducted a study to discover the opinions of IT Security professionals working for SMEs and enterprises worldwide regarding the human impact on the cybersecurity in a company.

The telecommunications sector suffered 13% of cyber incidents due to budget constraints, while transport & logistics, and financial services companies each saw 8% of them.

When asked about the budget for cybersecurity measures, 78% of respondents globally said they are equipped to keep up with or even stay ahead of new threats. However, 21% of companies are not doing so well – 18% report that they don’t have sufficient funds to protect the company’s infrastructure properly. At the same time, there are still companies without cost allocations for cybersecurity at all – 3% claimed they don’t have a dedicated budget for cyber protection needs.

Many respondents’ companies are eager to take steps to strengthen their cybersecurity in the next 1-1.5 years. One of the most popular areas of investment is threat detection software and trainings, where 39% of companies plan to allocate budgets for educational programs 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 a business strategy and consider cybersecurity as one of their business goals. The challenges can be met through the use of various modern approaches and technologies, comments Ivan Vassunov, VP, Corporate Products at Kaspersky. To get the most out of your budget, Kaspersky recommends implementing cybersecurity products with Advanced Anomaly Control such as Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response Optimum.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024