As India speeds up its mission to transform into a truly digital economy with technologies like 5G, the country faces one of the highest rates of cyber security threats in the Asia Pacific region — receiving over 500,000 security alerts daily — which is nearly three times the global average, a new report said.
According to a joint KPMG in India-Indian Mobile Congress-COAI report released on the first day of “IMC 2019”, organizations need to be open with consumers about their data being collected as cyber crimes grow.
The impact of a data breach to an organisation averaged $3.9 million globally in 2018; it was around $1.83 million in India last year.
“Nearly 39 per cent of security alerts remain unattended owing to the lack of relevant skill-sets. Though there are approximately 600,000 digitally skilled employees in India, only 10-12 per cent have cybersecurity skills, while even fewer have data protection and privacy skills,” lamented the report.
The skill gap may increase further with rapid digitalisation and is being cited as one of main reasons for not adopting advanced security practices and technology.
“Here, it has become essential for organizations to offer relevant training to upskill and reskill employees,” said the report.
To add to their burden, more than half the security alerts investigated by organisations turned out to be false. This experts additional pressure on cybersecurity personnel.
“As India speeds up its mission to transform into a truly digital economic, cybersecurity threats and privacy concerns could impede its success,” said the report.
All stakeholders involved (government, industry, consumers and regulators) should consider implementation of advanced cybersecurity technologies.
“Considering the rising threats of the digital age, organisations need to have a comprehensive security architecture in place, one which ensures the protection of critical data across varied networks and environments, and technologies that dynamically respond to threats as they emerge,’ the KPMG in India report mentioned.
It is becoming clear that data ethics, privacy and security need to form an integral part of every organisation’s risk appetite and Board agendas to monitor progress.
“This will require collaboration between entities that extract the data, and those responsible for ensuring that the data is used effectively and ethically,” the report said.
