Cybersecurity could emerge as the biggest challenge in 2023

India has been one of the most vulnerable countries to cyberattacks since the pandemic, as a staggering 68 per cent of companies in the country have experienced some form of attack on their data.

New Delhi: Security risks for businesses have risen dramatically as companies go agile and expand hybrid working, prompting remodeling of their data security systems.

Over the next few years, advancements in technology will cause a substantial increase in IT investments within businesses across all sectors. It is estimated that by 2022, spending on digital transformation technologies will amount to a gargantuan $1.8 trillion. If the rapid growth is opening up new opportunities, it also has an added element of risk of doing business in the connected world. Cyber criminals are taking advantage of new and advanced methods to cause considerable damage to organisations’ reputation, which could potentially cause huge financial losses. For businesses, taking the right preventive steps and investing in security measures is just another part of doing business.

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India has been one of the most vulnerable countries to cyberattacks since the pandemic, as a staggering 68 per cent of companies in the country have experienced some form of attack on their data. Additionally, a report by cybersecurity firm Sophos mentions that a remarkable seven out of ten Indian firms suffered from a ransomware attack in the previous year.

India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) reported that in the first half of 2022, over 674,000 cyber security incidents occurred in the country. According to PwC’s latest Global Digital Trust Insights, 82 percent of business executives in India anticipate an increase in cyber security budget by 2023. The survey also revealed that 65 per cent of these executives believe cyber criminals will have a bigger impact on their organisation in 2023 than they did in 2022.

Connectivity sans boundaries

The risk to enterprises in an evolving world without boundaries is more complex and sophisticated than ever before. More organisations increasingly rely on cloud infrastructure, leveraging cloud apps and platforms. Security teams are additionally tasked with protecting their companies from sophisticated ransomware attacks while managing their IoT device-centric environments. For companies that adopt cloud, users continue to be the primary cause for potential risk. It could result from unintended platform modifications to changing access to data. Insider threats continue to remain active over the last 12 months while insiders are leveraging cloud apps to access data through personal email and sharing platforms. The pandemic has resulted in a rapid increase of digital payments in India, which has become a target for cyber criminals. Businesses of all sizes have embraced digitised payment methods, which are both convenient and contactless, and customers have responded favourably by making use of these methods.
Bigger cost, higher damage

IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021 found that the number of cybercrimes has increased sixfold since the pandemic began. This has also caused the average cost of data breaches to rise from $3.89 million to $4.96 million. With half of employees working remotely during this time, it took an extra 58 days to detect and contain security breaches. As a result, the cost of properly protecting businesses is expected to reach a total of $433 billion by 2030. With 5G becoming commonplace, data privacy could become a major issue. Due to the increase in data transfer, which could leave nodes exposed to more expensive and damaging attacks. As companies strive to enhance accessibility, resilience, and agility, it opens up potentially more damaging opportunities for the attackers.

As digital transformation becomes increasingly important, companies must be aware of the rising risk of cyberattacks. A robust cybersecurity framework such as Zero Trust can help safeguard valuable data and will be fundamental for improving the overall state of cybersecurity in India.