A majority of Indian corporates are unprepared for cyber security challenges: Report

• Only 19% of Indian companies have a sufficient budget to have the desired level of cyber security.
  
• 32% organizations believe careless employees are the targets of cyber attacks.
  
• India has been the target of mass scale data breaches and cyber security attacks.

Despite an increase in large-scale cyber attacks, a majority of Indian companies seem unprepared to tackle these challenges, a recent report has warned.

One of India’s biggest digitization drive – Aadhar – became the target of the world’s biggest data breach in the past year, showing the rising importance of cyber security in India. A World Economic Forum report said that the breach was due to India’s “lax cyber security protocols”.

Over the years, India has been a target of mass cyber security attacks like ransomware WannaCry, even then the country’s business organization have not stepped up their game to secure themselves from such attacks.

The EY Global Information Security Survey (EY GISS) 2018-19 – India edition released last week said only 19% of Indian companies have a sufficient budget to provide the levels of cybersecurity and resilience as required even though said 70% said they plan to increase the budgets soon.

Moreover, the report also said that 32% of Indian organizations see careless/unaware employees as the biggest vulnerability to cyber security risks.

It also said that 56% of the organizations consider cyber security as an integral part of their strategy and plans, however there is a shortage of required skills or talent in India to tackle cyber security challenges.

Given India’s fast-growing affinity towards technology and its services, it is important that the country’s businesses take more active steps towards cyber security.

“As we accelerate towards becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy, building the right framework for cyber resilience and security is critical for the country. The government on its part has taken a number of initiatives in this direction; however, the involvement of each citizen and all organizations to make it a collective and coordinated movement is must for the success of the cyber secure eco system,” said Dr. Gulshan Rai, cyber-security chief with the Indian government.

India currently ranks 15th in a list of the world’s least secure countries with respect to cyber security, according to a study conducted by security portal Comparitech.

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