Indian companies sharpening focus on cloud security investment: EY study

Indian companies are increasingly focusing their cybersecurity budgets on cloud, revealed a survey by consultancy EY.

According to this year’s survey, 54% of respondents said that they were focusing on securing their cloud infrastructure, up from 51% last year. The study, which surveyed 230 top leaders from different companies in India, also reveals other technologies as investment focus areas for cybersecurity: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, mobile computing, blockchain and others.  

The report also shows that at least 70% of Indian organisations surveyed plan to increase their cybersecurity budgets. Also, 62% of the boards of firms surveyed are taking active steps to strengthen their cybersecurity understanding. 

"In comparison to the previous years, organisations are planning to spend more on cybersecurity, devoting more resources for improving their defences, and working harder to embed security-by-design," said Burgess Cooper, partner, cyber security, EY India.

He added, "With the rise in digital movement and subsequent exponential increase in data generation, there is a growing realisation that security is also about maintaining the continuity of business operations — and not restricted to only security of data and privacy.” 

However, the report also points out that only 19% of Indian organisations have sufficient budgets to provide the level of security they want. The report points out that skills’ shortage is one of the crucial issues affecting companies. 

Furthermore, the report reveals that 69% of the organisations surveyed are still spending a very limited portion of their overall information technology budget on cybersecurity.

India is still plagued by older generations of cybersecurity threats and is potentially a top target for ransomware as well, cybersecurity firm Sophos' senior security expert John Shier told TechCircle in a report published yesterday.

“If I was to compare the mix of old generation threats with new ones in India, the larger share of the pie would come from the former because of several factors,” Shier, who is responsible for driving technical enablement of UK-headquartered Sophos' channel partners, told TechCircle.

Six days ago, TechCircle reported a study by UK-based technology research platform Comparitech that India features in the bottom quarter in cybersecurity, while Japan, France, Canada, Denmark and the United States (the US) scored the best.

India was ranked 46 on the index. More than a quarter of Indian mobiles were infected with malware and financial malware infected 0.7% of all cyber users, the study, which analysed the preparedness of 60 countries based on available data, noted.