The American IT and networking firm Cisco Systems has revealed that a mere 2% of all organisations in Malaysia are ready enough to be resilient against modern cybersecurity risks. About two thirds of all Malaysian organisations are also only either now starting to deploy or currently have below average security readiness to deal with threats.
This follows the latest 2024 Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index report, which carried out a double blind survey across 30 different markets including Malaysia to determine the cybersecurity readiness of the various organisations in each market. Cisco scores them across five pillars of cybersecurity, which are: Identity Intelligence, Machine Trustworthiness, Network Resilience, Cloud Reinforcement and AI Fortification. Based on these five pillars, Cisco then determines just how ready each organisation is by scoring them into four groups:
- Beginner: Only at initial stages of deploying solutions.
- Formative: Some level of deployment but below average on cybersecurity readiness.
- Progressive: Considerable number of solutions, performing above average on cybersecurity readiness.
- Mature: Advanced stages of deployment, most ready to address contemporary risks.
As for Malaysia, Cisco found that only two percent of companies in Malaysia can be qualified as having a Mature rating and are currently able to deal with modern cybersecurity threats, which is below the global average of three percent. Furthermore, 66% of Malaysian organisations find themselves in the Beginner and Formative stages of cybersecurity readiness only.
“The threat landscape today is more complicated than ever and organizations globally including those in Malaysia continue to lag in their cyber resilience.
Companies need to adopt a platform approach that will provide a simple, secure, single pane of glass view into their entire architecture to strengthen their security posture and best take advantage of the opportunities that come with emerging technologies,” – Hana Raja, Cisco Malaysia Managing Director
Cisco adds that nearly 77% of those that they surveyed are already expecting a cybersecurity incident to disrupt their business within the next 12 to 24 months, while 73% of respondents said that they already suffered one in the last year. The bright side is that more and more companies are aware of the issue and are actively increasing their cybersecurity defences with 59% of respondents already planning to upgrade their IT infrastructure in the next two years, a marked increase from just one third of respondents the year before, with 98% of companies already expecting an increase in cybersecurity budget over the next 12 months.
For more about Cisco’s 2024 Cybersecurity Readiness Index, you can read their full report on their website by clicking here.
