The security company Mandiant reports that many of Asian organizations can easily be hacked by malicious users. In comparison with other regions, the Asian companies have the worst cyber security defenses in the world.
Asian Companies Need to Invest More in Cyber Security
Security researchers from Mandiant have published a survey focusing on Asian companies. The data was collected in 2015 and encompasses an average of 22 thousand systems. When a comparison with other regions is made, it turns out that the Asian organizations have the weakest cyber security defense mechanisms in comparison with all other regions.
Serious concerns have been raised as criminals can target key infrastructure. Mandiant warns that the majority of the cyber attacks in Asia may be state-sponsored and target locations with geopolitical tensions, such as the South China Sea.
As extortion of government, financial institutions and education facilities are becoming more popular; the weakened security state may be exploited by malicious users. The survey results show that Asian organizations were not able to defend their networks from intrusion attacks. Basic response principles, threat intelligence, and expertise, were the main weaknesses identified by the security researchers.
The data shows that Asia is 80% more likely to be targeted by criminals than any other part of the world. On average about 3.7 GB of data is stolen in each attack. A key characteristic of the region is that in a lot of the countries there are no breach disclosure laws. This fact means that a lot of security incidents are not public. The company warns that leaving security breaches unreported may compromise a country’s economic competitiveness or even national security.
