Cyber attacks cost Indian enterprises an average of over Rs 58 lakh in lost revenue in 2009, apart from bigger financial losses due to loss of confidential data and productivity, according to a Symantec Corp study.
“Organisations reported that enterprise security is becoming more difficult due to understaffing, new IT initiatives that intensify security issues and IT compliance issues,” Symantec managing director (Saarc region, minus Pakistan) Vishal Dhupar, said here on Tuesday.
The study titled ‘2010 State of Enterprise Security’ revealed that 81 per cent of the organisations feel better managing risk related to the use of IT is an important focus area for 2010. Furthermore, 92 per cent of the organisations said IT security budgets would stay the same or increase in 2010. Symantec surveyed 100 enterprises in the country, with employee size of between 100 and 999.
Stating that Indian enterprises perceived cyber attacks as a biggest threat than terrorism and natural disasters, Dhupar said in the past 12 months, 66 per cent of Indian enterprises experienced cyber attacks.
“Worse, 51 per cent reported that cyber attacks have stayed the same or grown over the past 12 months. While 34 per cent experienced an extremely or somewhat high number of external malicious attacks, 23 per cent experienced an extremely or somewhat higher number of internal attacks. Interestingly, while 51 per cent stated that external malicious attacks grew quickly in 2009, over 40 per cent revealed that internal attacks increased rapidly too,” he said.