Trellix Report gauges cyber readiness of Indian, Australian and Japanese government agencies

Trellix, the cybersecurity company delivering the future of extended detection and response (XDR), has released a global Cyber Readiness Report gauging technology adoption and perceptions of government cybersecurity leadership related to cybersecurity standards and the cooperation between the public and private sectors. 

The Trellix report shows 89 per cent of respondents from India, Australia and Japan believe formalized, government-led initiatives can play an important role in improving their nations’ protection against cyber threats. Respondents from these countries see opportunities for improvement in their partnerships with government in areas such as cyber defense coordination, threat information sharing and software supply chain integrity.  

The study, based on research conducted globally by Vanson Bourne, surveyed 900 cybersecurity professionals from organizations with 500 or more employees, including 200 respondents in India, Australia and Japan. 

“Global tensions and cyber-warfare incidents in Ukraine sharpen our focus on the cyber readiness of government and critical infrastructure,” said Bryan Palma, CEO, Trellix.

“Our report assesses the progress of new technology implementation, like XDR. It also identifies areas of opportunity for stronger public-private partnerships, where increased coordination will keep us ahead of our adversaries,” adds Palma.

Cybersecurity technology adoption

Among Japanese respondents, 32 per cent claim to have fully implemented endpoint detection and response and extended detection and response (EDR-XDR) and cloud cybersecurity modernization. Zero trust and multifactor authentication (MFA) appeared to be close behind with 31 per cent and 29 per cent respectively. 

32 per cent of Indian respondents claim to have fully implemented cloud cybersecurity modernization. The cyber defense technologies lagging furthest behind within this group appear to be zero trust architectures and EDR-XDR with only 25 per cent and 22 per cent fully deployed respectively.  

31 per cent of Australian respondents reported fully deploying EDR-XDR solutions. Technologies lagging further behind include cloud cybersecurity modernization (24per cent), MFA (24 per cent) and zero trust (16 per cent). 

Software Supply Chain Risk

The majority (82 per cent) of global respondents believe software supply chain risk management policies and processes are of either high or crucial importance to national security.  74 per cent of Japanese respondents identified these policies and processes as extremely or highly difficult to implement, and only 26 per cent claim to have fully implemented such practices. 

65 per cent of Indian respondents and 63 per cent of Australian respondents identified these policies and processes as difficult to implement, with only 40 per cent of Australians and 35 per cent of Indians claiming full implementation.

64 per cent of Australians, 59 per cent of Indians and 52 per cent of Japanese surveyed support government mandates demanding cybersecurity standards for software. But respondents from all three countries are concerned there could be drawbacks to such mandates. 

51 per cent of Indian respondents believe such mandates could result in government requirements that are too complex and ultimately too expensive to implement. Around half of Australian respondents believe government software security mandates will be too complex and expensive to implement and that government timelines will be difficult to meet. Roughly the same percent ages of Japanese are also concerned about the costs and complexity of such mandates.

Cyber Skills Challenges

 While survey respondents identified a variety of barriers to the implementation of advanced technologies, a cybersecurity talent shortage was revealed across the three countries. 60 per cent of Indian respondents and 45 per cent of Japanese respondents identified a lack of implementation expertise as one of the biggest barriers to implementation. 49 per cent of Australian respondents and 42 per cent of Japanese repondents identified a lack of in-house staff resources as one of their biggest barriers. These findings mirrored cybersecurity skills shortages in the U.S. and Europe.

Palma continued, “The cyber skills gap is well known; the report highlights the deficit is stifling the deployment of cybersecurity technology. Whatever innovation advantage the U.S. and its allies believe we have is irrelevant if we cannot implement the solutions.”

Public-Private Partnerships

 93 per cent of Indians, 90 per cent of Australians and 85 per cent of Japanese surveyed believe there is room for improvement in the level of cybersecurity partnerships between their national governments and organizations.

59 per cent of Indians surveyed believe their government could provide more funding to organizations such as theirs to improve cybersecurity, and 53 per cent favor tighter cooperation on the investigation of attacks following their discovery.

Half of Australian respondents supported a combination of incident notification and liability protection to facilitate sharing of attack data between impacted organizations, government partners and industry audiences. Half of Japanese respondents showed support for tighter cooperation on the investigation of attacks following their discovery.

In terms of the types of data government should share to help organizations better protect themselves, nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of Indian respondents valued more data about common cybersecurity vulnerabilities. 61 per cent of Japanese and 56 per cent of Australians surveyed said they would like to receive more data on attack vectors used by adversaries. 58 per cent of Japanese, 52 per cent of Indians and 44 per cent of Australians surveyed would like to receive more data on cyber-attacks in progress.