Indian Firms are Overly Confident About Their Cybersecurity Finds FICO Survey

Despite the growth in data breaches, security managers at Indian firms are incredibly confident in their cybersecurity preparedness, according to a new survey conducted by research and consultancy firm Ovum for Silicon Valley analytics firm FICO. Eighty eight percent of executives from Indian firms said their firm was better prepared than their competitors in their industry.

Financial services and utility respondents were least realistic, with 100 percent rating their firm as above average or as top performers, while retail services had the highest percentage who said their firms were top performers at 60 percent.

Despite this confidence, almost 1 in 3 organizations are limited to tools that provide only a point-in-time assessment of what their cybersecurity risk is, or do not currently have a robust assessment program.

Key Findings FICO Survey:

1. 88 percent of Indian firms surveyed said they are better prepared for data breaches than their competitors
2. Financial services and utility respondents were least realistic, with 100 percent rating their firm as above average or as top performers, while retail services had the highest percentage who said their firms were top performers at 60 percent
3. In the coming year, 80 percent of Indian financial services firms believe the overall level of cyber-threats and data breach activity will go up
4. 62 percent of Indian firms say cybersecurity investment will increase in the year ahead. This rose to 67 percent amongst Indian financial services firms and 80 percent for utilities

“There is clearly a bit of a disconnect amongst security managers regarding where they sit in relation to the competition,” said Vishal Goyal, Country Manager, India, FICO. “In India the rapid digitization of numerous sectors of the economy has presented the country with enormous opportunity as well as risk. Staying abreast of global standards and the rapidly changing landscape of cybersecurity remains a challenge. Complacency creeps in when companies escape data breeches, or simply haven’t picked them up, so it’s important to ensure regular robust assessments.”

In the coming year, the majority (56%) of Indian firms felt that the level of cyber-threats and data breach activity will go up. However, it was financial services firms that were the most pessimistic with 80 percent expecting an increase. This was in contrast to Indian utility companies where all respondents thought the threat activity would remain the same.

In the survey, 40 percent of respondents from the financial sector said that the greatest influence on cybersecurity strategy comes from customers or investors. For retailers and telecommunications it was increases in cyber-attacks and breaches that have them focused.

62 percent of Indian firms say cybersecurity investment will increase in the year ahead. This rose to 67 percent amongst Indian financial services firms and 80 percent for utilities.

“IT leaders have greater funding than ever to protect organizations from the continuously evolving threat landscape and meet complex compliance demands,” said Maxine Holt, research director at Ovum. “These same IT leaders are undoubtedly keen to believe that the money being spent provides their organization with a better security posture than any other – but the rapid pace of investment, often in point solutions, rarely takes an organization-wide view of security.”

Ovum conducted the survey for FICO through telephone interviews with 500 senior executives, mostly from the IT function, in businesses from the UK, the US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, India, Finland, Norway, Sweden and South Africa. Respondents represented firms in financial services, telecommunications, retail and e-commerce, and power and utilities.

In July, FICO announced that it is offering free subscriptions to the Portrait portal of the FICO Enterprise Risk Suite, which gives businesses access to their FICO Cyber Risk Score. The score, a machine learning-based cybersecurity rating service, can show organizations how business partners and cyber insurance underwriters see their network security, and can help them benchmark their performance.

More information: http://www.fico.com/en/latest-thinking/ebook/india-views-from-the-c-suite-survey-2018

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