60% of Indian businesses struggle to hire people with the right cybersecurity skills: Sophos survey

The number of organisations planning to have a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) lead their strategy will increase from 33 per cent today to 40 per cent in the next 24 months

94 per cent of Indian businesses feel that the biggest challenge to their security in the next 24 months will be the awareness and education of their employees and leadership

Sophos study of 900 business decision makers across Asia Pacific and Japan indicates COVID-19 accelerated period of digitisation and was a catalyst for improving cybersecurity, but systemic security issues persist

Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, today announced the findings of the third edition of its survey report, The Future of Cybersecurity in Asia Pacific and Japan, in collaboration with Tech Research Asia (TRA). The study reveals that despite cyberattacks increasing, cybersecurity budgets have remained stagnant and executive teams continue to underestimate the level of damage threats can do to organisations.

In India, 60% of organisations are struggling to recruit people with the cybersecurity skills they need. Furthermore, 94% of Indian businesses believe that the biggest challenge to their security in the next 24 months will be the awareness and education of their employees and leadership. Cognizant of the current state of cybersecurity, the number of Indian organisations planning to appoint a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to lead their cybersecurity strategy will increase from 33 per cent today to 40 per cent in the next 24 months.

Adding his thoughts, Sunil Sharma, managing director – sales, Sophos India and SAARC, said, “The scale of attacks over the last year has highlighted the need for highly skilled resources, which increases the pressure on organisations that are already struggling to hire talent with the right cybersecurity skills. To combat today’s sophisticated cyberattacks, organisations need next-generation cybersecurity solutions and highly skilled personnel to manage these solutions, carry out 24x7 threat hunting and detection, and response operations. Considering the pace at which attacks are increasing, this skills gap can be dangerous for the security of organisations. To address this gap, organisations need to invest in machine learning-enabled cybersecurity systems that automate certain tasks and reduce the workload of cybersecurity teams. Those organisations that don’t have in-house teams that can carry out 24x7 security operations can outsource their security to managed service providers and their threat hunting to a specialised managed threat response service.”