There’s this impending feeling that we’re losing the cyber security battle. Attackers have gotten smarter and more sophisticated, while organisations all over the world are spending large amounts of money to ineffectively protect their data. It may sound like a hopeless situation but by employing right strategies and technology solutions, today’s businesses have the necessary means to minimise the potential risk and develop a resilient, future-ready organisation.
To discuss the challenges and opportunities that cyberspace presents, and to help the modern business prepare for the cyber challenges of tomorrow, Cyber Security Asia 2017 – Developing a Resilient Future Ready Organisation is currently underway at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. The two-day conference features talks and panel discussions by cyber security experts from IT and technology organisations around the globe, such as EC-Council, NECTEC Thailand, Blockchain Global, CyberSecurity Malaysia, Softhouse Sweden, CompTIA and Softand Secure Trading UK, to name a few.
Cyber security is undoubtedly a matter of global interest. However, even though data theft is costing businesses worldwide trillions of dollars in damages, the current approach to cyber security is fundamentally broken and ineffective. From what has transpired so far, the overall gist of the conference is that there’s an urgent need for a change of mindset towards cyber security and cyber security must be at the centre for addressing the rapid change in technology. The current, “We’ve always done it this way” standpoint has to go if we are to stand any chance of defending against the global onslaught of organised cybercrime.
For internet users in the Asia-Pacific, cyber security, access, data protection, connectivity and privacy are among the chief concerns as internet usage within the region continues to skyrocket. T. Casey Fleming, CEO of BLACKOPS Partners Corporation, shared the following stats to shed light on the current state of affairs in the APAC region:
- Organisations in the Asia-Pacific region are struggling to keep up with cyber security technologies that are rapidly evolving and it is the primary barrier that’s hindering them from ensuring secure environments.
- Among organisations within the Asia-Pacific region, two-thirds have increased their cyber security budgets, with around 74% getting sizeable budgets (5 to 15 per cent of total IT spend) dedicated to cybersecurity.
- However, bigger budgets do not mean better solutions. Here’s how APAC organisations tend to spend their IT security budget
69% Antivirus software
67% Firewalls
27% Two-factor authentication
25% Anti-ransomware
22% Biometrics
- 58% believe “detect and respond” approach to be more important than prevention
- Only 52% reported a cyber security breach
- Different markets face different challenges:
Top challenge: Lack of employee awareness
Risk from third party vendors
The answer, organisations must take a proactive approach and immediately transform their cyber security strategy as well as culture. Cyber security is no longer just an IT issue. It is an issue that affects the whole organisation. Therefore, change needs to start from the top-down, driven by the CEOs and board of directors, with proper planning, training and raising awareness and accountability at all levels.
On a broader note, since cyber security is at its core a human issue, there has to be an increased focus on the human aspects of cyber security, both from the victim and adversary perspective. To quote Sun Tzu, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
Cyber Security Asia 2017 will resume tomorrow. For more information, click here.
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