Indian businesses suffer more cyber attacks with remote working

After a year into the pandemic-driven remote working, 40 per cent of Indian businesses reported an increase in the cyber attack volume, severity and/or scope of cyber attacks in the last 12 months in comparison to the global figure of 47 per cent, a new report has showed.

While 38 per cent of respondents from India continue to be very concerned about the security risks while working remotely, globally, this figure stands at 39 per cent, according to '2021 Thales Global Data Threat Report', a commissioned study conducted by 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Despite being over a year into remote working and the possibility of a likely shift to hybrid working models, security remains a key concern for the Indian businesses, the report said, adding that managing security risks is undoubtedly getting more challenging in the country.

"Many organisations experienced heightened security challenges over the last year and with the increasing number of ransomware attacks, organisations are now facing a double extortion threat," said Ashish Saraf, VP and Country Director - India, Thales.

"Not only could they be locked out of their critical IT and OT systems but also have their sensitive data released on the Internet," he added.

For respondents from India, malware (56 per cent) is the leading source of security attacks followed by ransomware (53 per cent), and phishing and credential stuffing (both 43 per cent).

Malicious insiders (40 per cent), external attacks (25 per cent) and human error (25 per cent) have been spotted by respondents from India as the types of attacks seen with the greatest threat.

"The traditional aspect of just relying on a sound backup and restore strategy is no longer sufficient, organisations need to implement a comprehensive digital security including controlling access to data, encryption of sensitive data coupled with secure management and control of encryption keys," Saraf emphasised.

Despite the increased risk remote working has posed to enterprises throughout the pandemic, nearly half (48 per cent) of respondents from India report that their security infrastructure was not prepared to handle the risks caused by Covid-19.

In fact, only one in five (21 per cent) of organisations believe it was very prepared.

"Forty eight per cent of respondents from India rank third-party vendor networks as the biggest target for cyber attacks, followed by on-premises legacy applications (44 per cent), cloud-based storage (40 per cent) and web applications (38 per cent)," the report revealed.