Trend Micro Incorporated, a global cybersecurity leader, revealed that cyber risk levels in Asia Pacific (APAC) have improved from the first half to the second half of 2022, according to its latest survey on cyber risk. Nevertheless, organisations remain pessimistic about the threat landscape, with 82% anticipating successful attacks this year.
The findings come from Trend Micro’s biannual Cyber Risk Index (CRI) report, which measures the gap between respondents’ cybersecurity preparedness versus their likelihood of being attacked. In the second half of 2022, the CRI surveyed more than 3,700 CISOs, IT practitioners, and managers across North America, Europe, Latin/South America, and APAC.
In APAC, enhanced cyber preparedness is a key driver of improved cyber risk levels—which has shifted from “elevated” to “moderate”. However, organisations cannot rest on their laurels with the prospect of threats looming.
The threats that APAC organisations are most worried about this year are as follows:
- Three in four organisations cited that it was “somewhat to very likely” that they would suffer a breach of customer data (74%), intellectual property (74%) or a successful cyberattack (82%).
- These figures represent declines of just 2%, 4% and 7% respectively, from the results of the CRI in the first half of 2022.
The Philippines’ cyber risk declines
Although the Philippines continues to experience “elevated” risk levels, there has been some improvement since the first half of 2022, with cyber risk declining and preparedness improving.
| Table 1: Cyber Risk in APAC & Philippines | |||
| Time frame | Cyber Risk Index & Risk Label | Business Implications
(Elevated Risk) |
|
| APAC | Philippines | ||
| First half of 2022 | -0.11
Elevated risk |
-0.21
Elevated risk |
? High likelihood of a compromise
? Some ability to detect new threats ? Low visibility of threats within network ? Lack of an incident response process |
| Second half of 2022 | 0.05
Moderate risk |
-0.06
Elevated risk |
|
However, local organisations remain strongly on guard with over 80% of organisations citing that they are “somewhat to very likely” to experience a breach in customer data (82%), intellectual property (82%), or successful cyberattack (87%) in the next 12 months.
Expected cyber threats in the Philippines & APAC this year
Organisations in the Philippines and APAC cited ransomware, business email compromise, and botnets among the top five cyber threats that they expect to experience this year.
| Table 2: Top 5 Expected Cyber Threats | |
| APAC | Philippines |
|
|
Current infrastructure security risks of organisations in the Philippines & APAC
In APAC and the Philippines, primary infrastructure risks cited are people related. Respondents in the Philippines and across the region named employees/personnel as representing three of their top five infrastructure risks.
| Table 3: Top 5 Current Security Risks in Infrastructure | |
| APAC | Philippines |
|
|
Ian Felipe, Country Manager, Trend Micro Philippines: “Hybrid work has become the norm in the Philippines—Trend Micro’s recent Risky Rewards study revealed that 78% of Filipino businesses believe that offering the ability to work from anywhere has become vital in the war for talent. At the same time, 62% believe there is a strong connection between cybersecurity and overall business risk. Local organisations thus need to master a balancing act between offering employees flexibility and minimising both the security and business risks that arise. Armed with the insights provided by the CRI, CISOs and CIOs in the Philippines can now better evaluate not only the technology solutions, but its people and processes to help mitigate cyber risks across the enterprise.”
To read a full copy of the Trend Micro CRI 2H 2022, please visit: https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/security-intelligence/breaking-news/cyber-risk-index
