Concerns over cyber threats are on the rise, with 57 per cent of respondents in Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore reporting a cyberattack that prevented data access in the past 12 months—the highest percentage in over five years.
The financial impact is significant, with costs doubling to an average of US$1.4 million globally, according to a recent report by Dell.
Organisations in Asia-Pacific and Japan must juggle multiple fronts to effectively protect their data, due to the “massive data growth, unique data mobility needs, and increased experimentations with generative AI means,” said Lucas Salter, general manager for data protection solutions at Dell Technologies for Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China.
The report underscores concerns about cybersecurity, as 76 per cent of organisations surveyed fear that their existing data protection measures are inadequate against ransomware threats. Furthermore, 66 per cent lack confidence in their ability to recover reliably from a destructive cyberattack.
Despite these concerns, most of the surveyed organisations (54 per cent) allocate more resources to cyber prevention than recovery—a balance that needs careful consideration in light of the escalating success of cyber attacks.
A recurring red flag is the impact of remote work, with 83 per cent of organisations believing that the surge in remote workers, driven by the pandemic, has increased exposure to data loss from cyberattacks. This sentiment has risen from 76 per cent compared to the previous research findings.
Insurance policies
Insights into the use of insurance policies to mitigate financial exposure were also surveyed. Some 95 per cent of surveyed organisations have ransomware insurance policies, but several conditions limiting coverage were noted.
For example, proof of best practices for cyberthreat prevention was required (59 per cent), some scenarios would void the policy (43 per cent) and that payments to some entities may be restricted by law (46 per cent).
Organisations should understand these limitations, as some 88 per cent of organisations had to pay to access their data.
In response to growing threats, organisations are taking proactive measures by engaging professional services (50 per cent), conducting regular cyber recovery testing (52 per cent), and deploying a cyber vault with physical and logical separation from production data (42 per cent).
Generative AI’s impact on cyber threats
For the first time, the Dell Global Data Protection Index (GDPI) also delved into the impact of generative AI on the cyber threat landscape and future data protection requirements.
Some 46 per cent of respondents believe generative AI provides a cybersecurity advantage, and 89 per cent think it will generate large volumes of new data, which needs consideration in future data protection strategies.
With the prevalence of multicloud strategies to deploy or update applications, data protection is a major concern.
A significant 76 per cent of IT decision-makers lack confidence in their organisation’s ability to protect all data across public clouds, with 39 per cent citing challenges over data security in public, multicloud environments.
Fifty-five per cent of respondents believe it is vital to continue increasing confidence in multicloud data protection and cyber security.
