73% of Indian firms expect customer data breach in next 1 year

Nearly 73 per cent of organisations in India expect to experience a data breach that impacts customer data in the next 12 months, a new report showed on Tuesday.

The Indian organisations ranked the top three negative consequences of an attack as lost IP, critical infrastructure damage/disruption, and cost of outside consultants and experts, according to global cybersecurity leader Trend Micro.

"Once again we've found plenty to keep CISOs awake at night, from operational and infrastructure risks to data protection, threat activity and human-shaped challenges," said Vijendra Katiyar, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Trend Micro.

Nearly 57 per cent Indian organisations among those surveyed said it was somewhat very likely that they'd suffer serious cyber-attacks in the next 12 months.

While 34 per cent suffered more than 7 cyber attacks that infiltrated networks/systems, 20 per cent had more than 7 breaches of information assets.

Thirty per cent of respondents said they'd suffered more that 7 breaches of customer data over the past year.

In India, the top cyber threats highlighted in the report were ransomware, watering hole attacks, botnets, malicious insiders and advanced persistent threats (APT).

The top security risks to infrastructure include malicious insiders, cloud computing infrastructure and providers, organisational misalignment and complexity, as well as negligent insiders, the report noted.

"To lower cyber risk, organisations must be better prepared by going back to basics, identifying the critical data most at risk, focusing on the threats that matter most to their business, and delivering multi-layered protection from comprehensive, connected platforms," Katiyar said.