'67% of Indian govt & essential services faced over 50% cyberattacks in last 12 months'

NEW DELHI: About 67 per cent of Indian government and essential services experienced more than 50 per cent increase in disruptive cyberattacks in 2022-2023, a new report said on Thursday.

According to researchers from Palo Alto Networks, about 45 per cent of Indian businesses saw over 50 per cent increase in disruptive attacks -- the highest in Asia-Pacific region (APAC).

The researchers surveyed 200 Indian IT decision-makers, CTOs, CIOs, and Senior Directors to understand the state of cybersecurity in India, belonging to sectors such as Banking & Finance, Essential Services, Telco/Tech/Communications, Retail/Hotel/F&B, Transport & Logistics, and Manufacturing.

"Our findings show that the transport, manufacturing, and public sectors have borne the brunt of advanced attacks. As India embraces digital transformation, it is mission critical to have a cybersecurity-first approach,” said Anil Valluri, Managing Director & Regional Vice President of India & SAARC, Palo Alto Networks.

Although India saw a 75 per cent increase in cybersecurity budget allocation for 2023 compared to the previous year, the report said that it also experienced the highest number of disruptive cyberattacks.

Moreover, the report mentioned that 60 per cent of Indian organisations are concerned about malware (ransomware, spyware, adware) attacks the most, while 57 per cent of Indian Telcos are concerned about ransomware the most.

About 94 per cent of organisations performed regular assessments and forensics for OT-related cybersecurity incidents.

"While budgets may be expanding, it is essential to utilise these resources diligently. Enterprises, regardless of their size, must proactively adopt a Zero Trust architecture to secure distributed enterprise networks," Valluri said.

Further, the report stated that 68 per cent believe ChatGPT will positively impact business tasks like content creation and report generation.

Around 42 per cent of Indian organisations said they are adjusting their cybersecurity strategy to adopt cloud security, while 94 per cent said they have a 5G strategy in place.