Cisco: Philippine Firms Suffered From Security ‘Incidents’

Melbourne-based technology firm Cisco presented a study on security incidents in the past two years. The report revealed that 67% of Philippine companies recently suffered from security “incidents” – mostly network breaches and outages, cyberattacks, accidental data leakage, and insider abuse.

Cisco presented the research titled Security Outcomes Report, Volume 3: Achieving Security Resilience at the Cisco Live conference which made security resilience a top priority of business executives across the globe. In the Philippines, security resilience was identified as a high priority for 95% of executives.

According to the study, security incidents in affected companies resulted in severe repercussions on the dynamics between companies and their partners. Information communication and technology interruption, supply chain disruption, impaired internal operations, and lasting brand damage were among the pitfalls cited.

In other cases, such incidents also resulted in the loss of competitive advantage, regulatory penalties or action, response and recovery costs, inability to generate revenue, and legal costs or penalties.

“Technology is transforming businesses at a scale and speed never seen before. While this is creating new opportunities, it also brings with it challenges, especially on the security front. To be able to tackle these effectively, companies need the ability to anticipate, identify, and withstand cyber threats, and if breached be able to rapidly recover from one. That is what building resilience is all about,” said Helen Patton, chief information security officer of Cisco Business Security Group.

“Security, after all, is a risk business. As companies don’t secure everything, everywhere, security resilience allows them to focus their security resources on the pieces of the business that add the most value to an organization, and ensure that value is protected,” Patton added.

In the Philippines, the types of security incidents the respondents identified were: network or system outages (54%), accidental disclosures (53%), distributed denial of service or DDOS attacks (52%), and ransomware events (52%).

Other common incidents identified were network or data breaches (47%), malicious insider abuse (32%), and physical destruction (4%).

The study also highlighted the expectation from business leaders to adapt to unexpected external change events or trends, mitigate financial losses from security incidents, and continue to mature and improve security capabilities for security resilience.

It also emphasized security as a human endeavor wherein leadership, company culture, and resourcing could have a significant impact on resilience.

“The Security Outcomes Reports are a study into what works and what doesn’t in cybersecurity. The ultimate goal is to cut through the noise in the market by identifying practices that lead to more secure outcomes for defenders,” said Jeetu Patel, executive vice president, and general manager of Cisco Security and Collaboration. “This year we focus on identifying the key factors that elevate the security resilience of a business to among the very best in the industry.”

Source: Inquirer.net