After a year into the pandemic-driven remote working, 40 percent of Indian businesses reported an increase in the cyberattack volume, severity, and/or scope of cyber attacks in the last 12 months in comparison to the global figure of 47 percent, a new report has shown.
While 38 percent of respondents from India continue to be very concerned about the security risks while working remotely, globally, this figure stands at 39 percent, according to the ‘2021 Thales Global Data Threat Report, a commissioned study conducted by 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Despite being over a year into remote working and the possibility of a likely shift to hybrid working models, security remains a key concern for Indian businesses, the report said, adding that managing security risks is undoubtedly getting more challenging in the country.
“Many organisations experienced heightened security challenges over the last year and with the increasing number of ransomware attacks, organisations are now facing a double extortion threat,” said Ashish Saraf, VP and Country Director – India, Thales.
“Not only could they be locked out of their critical IT and OT systems but also have their sensitive data released on the Internet,” he added.
For respondents from India, malware (56 percent) is the leading source of security attacks, followed by ransomware (53 percent), and phishing and credential stuffing (both 43 percent).
Malicious insiders (40 percent), external attacks (25 percent), and human error (25 percent) have been spotted by respondents from India as the types of attacks seen with the greatest threat.
“The traditional aspect of just relying on a sound backup and restore strategy is no longer sufficient, organisations need to implement a comprehensive digital security including controlling access to data, encryption of sensitive data coupled with secure management and control of encryption keys,” Saraf emphasized.
Despite the increased risk remote working has posed to enterprises throughout the pandemic, nearly half (48 percent) of respondents from India report that their security infrastructure was not prepared to handle the risks caused by Covid-19.
In fact, only one in five (21 percent) of organizations believe it was very prepared.
“Forty eight per cent of respondents from India rank third-party vendor networks as the biggest target for cyber attacks, followed by on-premises legacy applications (44 per cent), cloud-based storage (40 per cent) and web applications (38 per cent),” the report revealed.
