Budgets for cyber security safety to rise

OVER 90 percent of respondents expect to spend more on cyber security measures this year, up from 55 percent last year, according to the 20th Global Information Security Survey released by Ernst & Young.

However, a gap still exists between the desired budget amount and the actual amount of spending increase amid rising information threat levels.

A total of 87 percent of the surveyed organizations said that they need up to a 50 percent rise in the budget while only 12 percent expect to get a rise of over 25 percent.

Around 80 percent of the cyber attacks employed common methods that leveraged known vulnerabilities of organizations, and increasing connectivity also creates new risks and vulnerabilities across organizations.

The survey revealed that 43 percent of the global organizations considered both ransomware and phishing mails the biggest threat to them, while 16 percent of companies in China pinpointed malware as their top concern and 12 percent chose phishing mails.

The survey also pointed out that spending will rise on how to react to cyber security breaches while previously most spending were targeted at protection and detection of cyber security malpractices.

The survey covers nearly 1,200 senior executives of the world’s largest and most recognized organizations and examined their concerns about cyber security and their efforts to manage them.

Cybersecurity Ventures said in its Cybercrime Report 2017 that the global cost of cyber security breaches is estimated at US$6 trillion, doubling from 2015.

“Considering the information security implications of their current strategy will be the new trend of enterprise risk management in the future,” says Keith Yuen, cyber security chief of EY (China) Advisory.