After one year of working into the pandemic, cybersecurity concerns remain at an all time high. In a hybrid workforce model which continues to be increasingly data driven, security and governance and ethical use of this data cannot be overlooked, they are of prime concern. Despite the increased risk remote working has posed to enterprises throughout the pandemic, nearly half (48%) of respondents from India report that their security infrastructure was not prepared to handle the risks caused by Covid-19. In fact, only one in five (21%) of organisations believe it was very prepared.

 The 2021 Thales Global Data Threat Report, a commissioned study conducted by 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, reveals that managing security risks is undoubtedly getting more challenging, with almost 40% of respondents from India reporting an increase in the volume, severity, and/or scope of cyber-attacks in the last 12 months.

 It has been found that malware (56%) is the leading source of security attacks followed by ransomware (53%), and phishing and credential stuffing (both 43%) in India. Internal threats as well as external attackers are still of great concern to industry. Malicious insiders (40%), external attacks (25%) and human error (25%) have been spotted by respondents from India as the types of attacks seen with the greatest threat.

 Forty-eight percent of respondents from India rank third-party vendor networks as the biggest target for cyber attacks, followed by on-premises legacy applications (44%), cloud based storage (40%) and web applications (38%).

 Ashish Saraf, VP and Country Director, India, Thales, comments: “Many organizations experienced heightened security challenges over the last year and with the increasing number of ransomware attacks, organizations are now facing a double extortion threat. Not only could they be locked out of their critical IT & OT systems but also have their sensitive data released on the internet. The traditional aspect of just relying on a sound backup and restore strategy is no longer sufficient, organizations need to implement a comprehensive digital security including controlling access to data, encryption of sensitive data coupled with secure management and control of encryption keys. It is important for all the stakeholders in the data flow chain to embrace cutting-edge technology solutions to mitigate these risks.”

 As increases in attacks continue, businesses are turning to the cloud to store their data in this digital-first world. They are also recognising the issues they are facing and are attempting to address them with Zero Trust strategies. However, 82% respondents from India have shown concerns about the security threats of quantum computing, a threat arguably exacerbated by the increasing complexity of cloud environments.

 The 2021 Thales Global Data Threat Report, conducted in January-February 2021, was based on a global 451 Research survey commissioned by Thales of more than 2,600 executives with responsibility for or influence over IT and data security. Respondents were from 16 countries and organisations represented a range of industries, with a primary emphasis on healthcare, financial services, retail, technology, and federal government.