60% of Indian businesses struggle to hire people with the right cybersecurity skills: Sophos survey
- The number of organisations planning to have a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) lead their strategy will increase from 33 per cent today to 40 per cent in the next 24 months
- 94 per cent of Indian businesses feel that the biggest challenge to their security in the next 24 months will be the awareness and education of their employees and leadership
- Sophos study of 900 business decision makers across Asia Pacific and Japan indicates COVID-19 accelerated period of digitisation and was a catalyst for improving cybersecurity, but systemic security issues persist
Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, today announced the findings of the third edition of its survey report, The Future of Cybersecurity in Asia Pacific and Japan, in collaboration with Tech Research Asia (TRA). The study reveals that despite cyberattacks increasing, cybersecurity budgets have remained stagnant and executive teams continue to underestimate the level of damage threats can do to organisations.
In India, 60% of organisations are struggling to recruit people with the cybersecurity skills they need. Furthermore, 94% of Indian businesses believe that the biggest challenge to their security in the next 24 months will be the awareness and education of their employees and leadership. Cognizant of the current state of cybersecurity, the number of Indian organisations planning to appoint a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to lead their cybersecurity strategy will increase from 33 per cent today to 40 per cent in the next 24 months.
Adding his thoughts, Sunil Sharma, managing director – sales, Sophos India and SAARC, said, “The scale of attacks over the last year has highlighted the need for highly skilled resources, which increases the pressure on organisations that are already struggling to hire talent with the right cybersecurity skills. To combat today’s sophisticated cyberattacks, organisations need next-generation cybersecurity solutions and highly skilled personnel to manage these solutions, carry out 24×7 threat hunting and detection, and response operations. Considering the pace at which attacks are increasing, this skills gap can be dangerous for the security of organisations. To address this gap, organisations need to invest in machine learning-enabled cybersecurity systems that automate certain tasks and reduce the workload of cybersecurity teams. Those organisations that don’t have in-house teams that can carry out 24×7 security operations can outsource their security to managed service providers and their threat hunting to a specialised managed threat response service.”
END
About this research
Sophos commissioned Tech Research Asia (TRA) to undertake this research into the Asia Pacific and Japan cybersecurity landscape. This includes a major quantitative survey where a total of 900 responses were captured across Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. In addition to this, TRA captured qualitative insights from virtual roundtable events in Australia, India, Japan and Singapore (with ASEAN representation).
About Sophos
Sophos is a worldwide leader in next-generation cybersecurity, protecting more than 500,000 organizations and millions of consumers in more than 150 countries from today’s most advanced cyberthreats. Powered by threat intelligence, AI and machine learning from SophosLabs and SophosAI, Sophos delivers a broad portfolio of advanced products and services to secure users, networks and endpoints against ransomware, malware, exploits, phishing and the wide range of other cyberattacks. Sophos provides a single integrated cloud-based management console, Sophos Central – the centerpiece of an adaptive cybersecurity ecosystem that features a centralized data lake that leverages a rich set of open APIs available to customers, partners, developers, and other cybersecurity vendors. Sophos sells its products and services through reseller partners and managed service providers (MSPs) worldwide. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com.
About Tech Research Asia
TRA is a fast-growing IT analyst, research, and consulting firm with an experienced and diverse team in Sydney | Melbourne | Singapore | Kuala Lumpur | Hong Kong | Tokyo. We advise executive technology buyers and suppliers across Asia Pacific. We are rigorous, fact-based, open, and transparent. And we offer research, consulting, engagement and advisory services. We also conduct our own independent research on the issues, trends, and strategies that are important to executives and other leaders that want to leverage the power of modern technology. TRA also publishes the open and online journal, TQ.
