A new research from Palo Alto Networks has found that Asean business leaders are prioritizing cybersecurity issues at the board level, and more than half of Philippine organizations conducts monthly high-level cybersecurity discussions — a development mainly brought about by the on-going Covid-19 pandemic.
Cybersecurity has risen to the top of the leadership agenda for many Asean businesses. A majority (92%) believe that cybersecurity is a priority for their business while nearly three in four (74%) also believe their leadership has increased the focus on cybersecurity. More than half (56%) of Philippine organizations indicated that they have been discussing their cybersecurity strategy on a monthly basis.
Business leaders also took concrete actions to strengthen their organization’s cybersecurity capabilities, as 96 percent of organizations maintain a dedicated in-house IT team responsible for managing cyber risks. Above two-thirds (68%) are also planning to increase their cybersecurity budgets in 2022, driven by the adoption of next-gen security capabilities (48%); the need to address existing cybersecurity gaps (46%); and the need to optimize operations (44%).
“The pandemic has served as a catalyst for Asean business leaders to pay greater attention to their cybersecurity defense measures. Many of them recognize the deep impact it can have on their business continuity. To manage today’s remote workforce in a digital-first environment, cybersecurity must be integrated horizontally across all facets of the business and considered as part of every corporate action,” said Ian Lim, field chief security officer at Palo Alto Networks.
“As new and unexpected threats continue to shake up businesses of all sizes and industries, there needs to be closer collaboration between both technology and business leaders to tackle these novel challenges.”
Philippine organizations perceived the highest level of risks to cyber threats (48%) among Asean countries, prompting 64 percent of local firms to increase their budget for cybersecurity in 2022.
“It’s encouraging to see that Philippine businesses are confident and proactive in dealing with cybersecurity issues. According to the survey, the Philippines is the second-highest country in the Asean where the business leaders are confident of their cybersecurity measures and this speaks volumes about our nation’s awareness as well as preparedness to potential cyberattacks. Having said that, Philippine organizations should continue to focus on post-Covid cyber protection in order to stay ahead of the evolving cyber threats,” said Oscar Visaya, country manager for the Philippines at Palo Alto Networks.
As work-from-home is becoming an industry norm, the study said infrastructure of many businesses is still not designed to cope with great demand for remote access by employees working from anywhere. And this has brought about a new set of cybersecurity challenges, the survey added.
The survey respondents reported that the most relevant is the increase in digital transactions with suppliers and other third parties (54%); the need to procure a wider array of cybersecurity solutions to protect themselves from cyberthreats (54%); and unmonitored and unsecured IoT devices connected to the corporate network (51%).
The majority of Asean organizations (94%) also experienced a rise in the number of attacks in 2021, with close to a half (42%) of the Philippine organizations experiencing up to 25% increase in disruptive cyberattacks.
Amongs all industries surveyed, financial services (45%) and fintech (42%) notably perceive themselves to be most at risk of cyberattacks. Malware attacks were identified as a top concern.
However, these two industries are also most confident of the cybersecurity measures put in place to protect themselves from attacks. This confidence might stem from a higher focus on cybersecurity reported by business leaders in financial services (79%) and fintech (76%) compared to the average of 74%. Cybersecurity budgets have also increased the most for organizations in financial services (81%) and fintech (75%), compared to the 68% average.
As Covid-19 increasingly drives work and leisure activities towards online platforms, Asean organizations predict that the one cybersecurity trend businesses need to pay attention to the most in 2022 will be for cyberattacks to affect personal safety. This is against the backdrop of organizations accelerating their digital transformation by increasing investment in mobile applications (58%), expanding their remote workforce (57%), and expanding the footprint of smart devices (57%).
Digital technologies have also become more interwoven into the workplace. As a result, nine in ten (90%) Asean organizations are evolving their cybersecurity strategies to stay protected from attacks. Across all sectors, adopting cloud security (54%) is the top post-pandemic measure taken by organizations, followed by IoT/OT security (46%) and access management (45%).
The Philippines is ahead of the rest of the Asean countries as 96% of the organizations in the country will adjust their cybersecurity strategy for a post-pandemic world in which access management is a top concern (57%) followed by adopting cloud security (53%).
