Over 82% of Indian CXOs see rise in cybersecurity budgets in 2023: PwC

More than 82% of business executives in India foresee an increase in cybersecurity budgets in 2023, according to a PwC report.  

The survey said that 69% saw their security budget increased in 2022 and 65% plan to spend more on cybersecurity in 2023. In fact, for Indian CXOs, a catastrophic cyber-attack ranks higher than global recession, a resurgence of Covid-19 or a new geopolitical conflict among the top three risks.  

Also, one in four companies (27%) globally has suffered a data breach that cost between $1 and $20 million or more in the past three years, according to the survey. In July this year, IBM and Ponemon Research Institute published a report titled: Cost of a Data Breach Report that also showed that Indian firms lost a whopping ₹176 million on an average in financial year 2021-22 to data breaches, a 25% increase from ₹140 million in FY20, and up 6.6% from ₹165 million in FY21.  

The global average cost of a data breach also reached an all-time high of $4.35 million for organisations, with breach costs increasing nearly 13% over the last two years, it said.  

Needless to say, organisations across the globe worry about more threats and cyber events in 2023 with 65% of surveyed business executives feel cybercriminals will significantly affect their organisation in the coming year. In India, for example, cloud-based pathways (59%) and the internet of things (58%) are top areas of concern, followed by mobile devices and software supply chains (54%). Globally, mobile devices are considered most unsecure (41%).  

Concerns around cybersecurity has extended to the C suite more than ever, said the PwC study, with most CEOs surveyed are planning to ramp up action cybersecurity measures in the coming year — 52% say they will drive major initiatives to improve their organisation’s cyber posture. Many chief financial officers (CFOs) surveyed are also planning to increase their cyber focus, including cyber technology solutions (39%), focus on strategy and coordination with engineering/operations (37%) and upskilling and hiring of cyber talent (36%).  

“The digitalisation of business demands that corporates and boards invest in becoming more cyber resilient. This needs to be across the spectrum — in technology, people, processes and engineering capabilities,” Sivarama Krishnan, Partner and APAC Cybersecurity Leader, PwC, said.  

The cost of cyber breaches goes much further than direct financial costs, with the range of harm organisations have experienced due to a cyber-breach or data privacy incident over the past three years includes loss of customers (cited by 27%), loss of customer data (25%) and reputational or brand damage (23%), the PwC survey said.