PwC: Firms unconcerned about

Only 35% of respondents have fully-operational response plan

PETALING JAYA: A survey showed that a third of board members in Malaysian companies are unconcerned about cyber incidents and are unprepared to deal with cyber crimes.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Malaysia Global Economic Crime Survey 2016 (Malaysia report), 17% of board members does not request information regarding the company’s state of readiness to deal with cyber incidents while 11% does not consider the need for such information.

PwC said that only 35% of Malaysian respondents had a fully operational cyber incident response plan.

Three in 10 have no plan at all, and of these, nearly half do not think they need one.

However, it said 42% of Malaysian organisations saw an increased risk of cyber threats with more than half, or 54% being unsure of whether or not they were at risk. The survey suggested that many boards were not sufficiently proactive regarding cyber threats, and generally do not understand their organisation’s digital footprint well enough to properly assess the risks.

In several countries, boards have a responsibility to shareholders when it comes to cyber risk. However, less than half of board members globally actually request information about their organisation’s state of cyber-readiness.

PwC said all industries were at risk including some which might have considered themselves unlikely targets.

According to PwC’s Global State of Information Security Survey 2016, the sector registering the most significant increase in cybercrime activity in 2015 was retail, while financial services had levelled out, with very little growth in terms of number of attacks over the last three years.

It said that there has been a sharp increase in attack activity involving the so-called “Internet of Things”, including cars and household devices. PwC said six in 10 chief executives ranked cyber threats and the speed of technological change as top threats to growth.