Only 24% of Indian firms are ready to defend against cybersecurity threats

New Delhi: Only 24 per cent of Indian organisations have the ‘Mature’ level of readiness needed to be resilient against today’s modern cybersecurity threats, a new report said on Tuesday.

According to Cisco’s Cybersecurity Readiness Index, India scored high in the global chart in terms of maturity, performing above the global average of 15 per cent on cybersecurity readiness.

“The Index has been built with a focus on five core pillars of identity, devices, network, applications, and data, and examines organisational postures in securing these,” said Vish Iyer, Vice President, Architectures, Cisco APJC.

“These five pillars need to be protected with a mix of point tools and integrated platforms to achieve security resilience while reducing complexity. Only then will businesses be able to close the cybersecurity readiness gap,” he added.

While organisations in India are faring better than the global average, the number is still very low, given the risks, said the report.

Despite this gap in readiness, about 90 per cent of respondents said they expect a cybersecurity incident to disrupt their business in the next 12 to 24 months.

The cost of being unprepared can be substantial as 80 per cent of respondents said they had a cybersecurity incident in the last 12 months, and 53 per cent of those affected said it cost them at least $5,00,000.

Moreover, around 95 per cent of respondents said their organisations plan to increase their cybersecurity budget by at least 10 per cent over the next 12 months.

“Assessing security readiness and ensuring that organisations adopt an integrated platform approach to secure the five key pillars will play an integral role in helping businesses futureproof themselves,” said Samir Mishra, Director, Security Business Group, Cisco India & SAARC.