Cybersecurity readiness falling short

Lack of preparation proving to be costly

‘‘ Organisations must integrate platforms to achieve security resilience and posture while reducing complexity. TAY BEE KHENG President for Asean, Cisco Systems

Only 27% of organisations in Thailand have a “mature level of readiness” to defend against modern cybersecurity threats, according to Cisco’s initial cybersecurity readiness index.

“The move to a hybrid world has fundamentally changed the landscape for companies and created cybersecurity complexity as multiple devices and networks access company assets. Organisations must integrate platforms to achieve security resilience and posture while reducing complexity,” said Tay Bee Kheng, president for Asean at global technology firm Cisco Systems.

The report measures the readiness of companies to maintain cybersecurity resilience against modern threats.

These measures cover five core pillars that form the baseline of required defences: identity, devices, network, application workloads and data, and encompass 19 different solutions within the pillars.

The research was carried out between August and September 2022.

The survey asked 6,700 private sector leaders across 27 markets to indicate which of these solutions they had deployed and the stage of deployment. Companies were then classified into four stages of readiness: beginner, formative, progressive and mature.

The beginner is at the initial stage of deployment of solutions, while the formative stage has some level of deployment but is below average regarding cybersecurity readiness.

The progressive stage has considerable level of deployment and is performing above average in terms of cybersecurity readiness.

Mature has achieved an advanced stage of deployment and is most ready to address security risks.

While organisations in Thailand are faring better than the global average (15% of companies in the mature stage), the number is still very low given the risks, according to the report.

The cost of being unprepared can be substantial. Some 66% of Thai respondents indicated they experienced a cybersecurity incident in the last 12 months, compared with 57% globally.

The incidents cost 50% of the affected Thai organisations at least US$500,000 or more, compared to 41% globally who had similar costs.

Comparing the overall cybersecurity readiness of organisations in Thailand and the world, 27% of Thai organisations have a mature level of cybersecurity readiness compared with the global average of 15%.

In addition, 34% of Thai organisations have cybersecurity at the progressive level versus the global average of 30%, and 38% at the formative level versus 47%. Just 1% of Thai organisations have security at the beginner level versus the global average of 8%.

Most firms are aware the threat is real, as 89% of Thai respondents believe cybersecurity incidents are likely to disrupt their businesses over the next 12 to 24 months, compared to 82% globally.

In addition, 93% of Thai organisations plan to increase their cybersecurity budget by at least 10% over the next 12 months, compared with 86% globally.

“The cyberthreat landscape has grown even more crowded and complex today as organisations in Thailand operate in a hybrid and app-driven interconnected world,” said Weera Areeratanasak, managing director of Cisco Thailand and Myanmar. “As the country accelerates its digital transformation towards its Thailand 4.0 ambitions, it will be crucial for organisations to view cybersecurity as foundational to any digitalisation efforts.”