Over 60% businesses were unable to launch new projects fearing cyber risks

Over 64% of businesses have faced a situation where they were unable to launch new projects because they could not address cybersecurity risks, stated a Kaspersky report. This can be linked to troubles finding an appropriate security solution that would not cause performance, maintenance, or other issues to their project. 

According to the study, for some organisations, addressing new cybersecurity risks can become a real challenge. Of all the projects businesses have had to discard due to these issues, the most common is the implementation of new IT solutions (52%). This is closely followed by changes in corporate policy (50%) and the launch of new business projects (49%). 

This issue reflects another finding from the report which shows around three-in-four organisations (81%) have, at times, been unable to find an appropriate security solution. 

Also read: Indian data centres faced nearly 51 mn cyber attacks during April-Dec: Report

The study pointed out that protection tools may not be suitable for various reasons, the most common being performance issues (47%) and difficulties with maintenance (47%). These are critical as they can affect the level of protection provided, as well as the compatibility issues (45%) having an impact on business processes. 

“This is particularly relevant when it comes to protecting specialized software or firmware, such as industrial, manufacturing, or IoT. It is therefore important that IT security teams find compromises and workarounds to deliver both performance and security,” the report mentioned. 

“With the current pace of business innovation, cybersecurity should enable and support new initiatives, not stop them. To achieve this, every new solution should be approached with a dedicated cybersecurity risk assessment and analysis of available protection measures,” said Andrey Suvorov, CEO of Kaspersky’s subsidiary IIoT company, Aprotech.

“For critical systems, such as Industrial IoT, there are new, solid security approaches such as cyber immunity. Along with the proven must-haves – network segmentation, nodes’ protection and awareness – this innate resistance to cyberattacks should make cybersecurity a reliable business partner,” said Suvorov.