Organisations' cybersecurity readiness for new regulations still low - ESET

ESET has released the results from its ESET Enterprise Survey 2019.

The survey, which was commissioned to understand several countries' views on the importance of cybersecurity, revealed that organisations need to invest more in cyber-education and cybersecurity solutions.

"The emergence of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning and 5G is driving the growth and value of data across various industries," says ESET Asia Pacific and Japan sales and marketing director Parvinder Walia.

"It is imperative that organisations understand the importance of cybersecurity solutions, to ensure that data is kept safe and secure.

"Organisations must also adapt to the various cybersecurity and data protection laws being implemented by their respective countries and those in which they do business," Walia says.

Of the APAC countries that were part of the ESET Enterprise Survey, respondents from Taiwanese organisations demonstrated the most promise by being the most active in performing a variety of security checks, regularly.

These include updating of security software and logins, backing up of servers and reviewing security measures and data security policies.

However, across all countries surveyed, prioritisation was identified as the biggest organisational cybersecurity challenge (20%).

This is further reinforced by the perception of the role IT departments within organisations play in being responsible for optimising the IT network and system, and internal IT support.

Moreover, 60% of organisations surveyed believe that the use of encryption solutions would result in performance issues in company operations.

"While it is reassuring that 95% of respondents from all countries surveyed think that companies should invest more in cybersecurity, this needs to extend beyond just reliance on packaged solutions and the efforts of IT professionals it needs to be the concern of all employees," says Parvinder.

"Phishing emails, ransomware and human errors were all cited as the main drivers of security breaches amongst the surveyed companies. This indicates that there is a gap in understanding the threat landscape that needs to be addressed.

On the regulatory front, a higher proportion of companies in India and China indicated a higher sense of familiarity with the rules and regulations governing cybersecurity in their country.

Other countries cited a lack of government transparency (42%) as the key reason for their lack of familiarity, followed by information being too complicated to understand (37%).

"Cybersecurity is constantly evolving. With that comes the evolution of cyber-threats. While each country has a different focus to develop and improve its digital economy, it is important that organisations are aware of the changes being implemented and are receptive to adapting to these changes," adds Parvinder.

The survey was conducted to understand the current perceptions around the importance of cybersecurity, existing policies and procedures in place for cybersecurity and the need for encryption services.

The survey was conducted from March to April 2019 across Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.

Each market consisted of a minimum of 250 respondents from various industries, with the top three industries being manufacturing (21%), IT - telecommunications (18%) and Government and Public Sector (10%).

Respondents also ranged across different levels within their organisations - Junior management (34%), Middle management (52%) and C-suites (14%).