Indian organisations at very high risk of cyber attacks, says survey

As artificial intelligence and technological advancements continue to take over the world, a recent survey has revealed that cyber attacks and threats are currently the biggest risks faced by Indian organisations.

The PwC’s 2023 Global Risk Survey- India edition said that 38 percent of all the respondents of the survey felt that their company is highly exposed to cyber threats. Cybersecurity has jumped two spots from number three to number one on the risk radar when compared to the 2022 Global Risk Survey, the data stated.

PwC said the final results of the survey are based on 3,910 survey responses from Business and Risk Management leaders (CEO, board, risk management, operations, technology, finance, audit) across 67 territories providing their views on the status and direction of risk in their organisation. 163 Indian organisations were a part of this survey.

In an effort to reduce these risks, many Indian organisations have invested a large sum of money into cybersecurity such as AI and machine learning.

The survey results show that more than half of the respondents plan to invest in cybersecurity tools (55 per cent) and AI, machine learning and automation technologies (55 per cent) in the next 1-3 years.

Further, 61 percent global firms and 71 percent Indian firms are gathering and analysing cybersecurity and IT data for risk management and opportunity identification in an effort to reduce the cyber attack threat.

Cyber attacks on public and private organisations

The most recent cyber attack in India was against the e-Nagarpalika portal of Madhya Pradesh, where the data of people living in 413 cities was compromised. The cyber attack brought to light how smaller government portals have low security but highly sensitive data.

Recently, US real estate giant First American also got hit by a massive cyber attack, with the organisation forced to take some of its operations offline due to compromised data.

Indian businesses are seeing technology disruptors as opportunities, with 69 per cent of Indian executives seeing Generative AI as an opportunity (against 60 per cent globally).

With inputs from PTI