Indian cos get over 5 lakh security alerts daily but 39% go unattended: Cisco

Indian companies receive over 5 lakh security alerts a day, but nearly 39 percent of these go unattended due to lack of required skill sets in organizations, a report by tech giant Cisco said Wednesday.

The report, titled Cisco 2018 Asia-Pacific Security Capabilities Benchmark Study, said India Inc faces one of the highest levels of cybersecurity threats in the Asia-Pacific region with over 5 lakh security alerts coming in on a daily basis.

This, it said, is nearly thrice the number of alerts faced by global companies.

However, nearly 39 percent or about up to 2 lakh alerts go unattended due to lack of required skill sets, in line with global peers in the APAC region who left half of the "legitimate" cyber threat alerts unattended, it added.

"This presents a significant concern for the cybersecurity defenders, who need to identify the genuine threats from a vast number of daily alerts," the report said.

The report found that India witnessed the second highest instances of "legitimate threats" in the Asia-Pacific region (44 percent), behind Australia (65 percent).

While 56 percent of the investigated alerts turn out to be false, security experts need to ensure that they are working on the right alerts.

"...hence, more work is needed to equip security professionals with adequate tools to help them get more accurate information about their environment and the attacks happening against it," it said.

Interestingly, the report said Indian breaches caused a lower financial impact as opposed to its regional counterparts with 27 percent of Indian respondents reporting the cost of a breach to less than USD 1,00,000 (Rs 72.3 lakh).

A fifth of the Indian respondents said a breach cost them between USD 5-10 million (Rs 36-73 crore).

The cost of a breach is highest in Australia with 52 percent of respondents saying the attack costs them between USD 1-5 million. The cost includes the impact of lost revenue, loss of customers, and out of pocket expenses, etc.

"Companies and governments alike should consider adopting advanced security technologies that include machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities and also look at bridging the gap of skilled cybersecurity professionals in the country through relevant training and support," Cisco Director, Security, Vishak Raman said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)