Telstra’s Security Report 2018 uncovers the state of security in APAC
25 July 2018 – Two-thirds of Asia Pacific (APAC) business executives and IT decision makers say their organisation was disrupted by cyber security breaches in 2017, according to the Telstra Security Report 2018. APAC businesses also estimated the highest number of breaches going undetected (75%), for up to years at a time, compared to other global regions.
These findings appear in the most extensive Telstra Security Report yet. Telstra gathered input from more than 1,250 decision-making security and C-level professionals, in two regions – APAC and Europe – including 13 countries across 15 industries.
The Telstra Security Report 2018 reveals an evolving threat landscape, characterised by an increased volume and variety of attacks as organisations adopt new technology to optimise business models and achieve efficiencies.
The findings showed ransomware attacks were up across all markets. Seventy four per cent of APAC businesses experienced a ransomware attack in 2017, while twenty two per cent did so on a weekly or monthly basis.
The findings shine a light on the increasing complexity faced by businesses in the field of cyber and electronic security in 2018, explores its root causes and impact, and provides recommendations for proactive responses. It empowers organisations with the insights to improve their management of risk at a time when the reputational and regulatory consequences of significant breaches are greater than ever.
Telstra’s Director of Security Solutions, Neil Campbell, said: “Our most comprehensive Telstra Security Report to date describes a security environment which is evolving faster and becoming more multi-faceted than ever. Yet the understanding and technology at our disposal to address these threats has also never been stronger.”
The more complex and threatening security environment arises at the same time as compliance demands become more stringent. The introduction of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 25th May 2018 requires any organisation worldwide which handles EU citizens’ data to comply with enhanced data protection stipulations or face heavy penalties with the upper level reaching up to €20 million or 4% of the worldwide revenue, whichever is higher.
Across APAC, security budgets are being increased to handle the threat and enable organisations to comply with new regulations. The vast majority of respondents (84%) in APAC said their security budget would be increasing and that cyber security and electronic security budget would converge. Of these, the greatest proportion (24%) planned a 6-10 per cent increase over the next 12 to 24 months. With just 13 per cent of APAC businesses reported that they would be holding the line on their IT security budget.
Telstra helps APAC businesses to rise to the challenge with security-as-a-service solutions
In light of these changing conditions and the complexity of defending against an increasing array of threats, Telstra is launching a suite of security-as-a-service solutions for the APAC region.
These security-as-a-service options offered by Telstra help APAC businesses faced with newly complex security challenges and resource constraints become proactive rather than reactive about cyber risks. They enable organisations to fill gaps in technology and expertise on demand, all while dealing with one single vendor. The solutions being introduced include:
- Consulting and Professional Services
- Aligns customers’ security requirements with business needs. An assessment is carried out to understand customers’ current and future state requirements for security, compliance and resilience, including assessing risks and identifying security measures needed. The Telstra Technical Specialist will recommend a roadmap to reach the desired protection level and design a framework to allow the business to proactively meet their ever-changing threat environment.
- Telstra’s Consulting and Professional Services also provides GDPR assessments to identify gaps and potential solutions to address or mitigate issues in GDPR compliance.
- Managed Security Services (MSS)
- At a time when Organisations have to juggle shortages in skilled Security resources, reduced budgets, and access to the latest threat intelligence, concerns around data loss or theft and increasingly complex technologies, a Managed Security Services Provider has become a trusted partner and necessary requirement for many.
- This approach can allow organisations to focus on the things that matter whilst knowing that their critical assets are properly managed and protected.
- Telstra’s 24/7 Security Monitoring service provides visibility through detection and notification of security incidents, allowing the customer to respond in a timely manner to that incident.
- TPN Gateway Protection
- Telstra’s TPN Gateway Protection is a customer managed next-generation cloud firewall solution that provides customers with a choice of options to manage their firewall policies in a multi-cloud environment. A simple-to-use and manage solution that’s easy to get started and protects businesses with enterprise-grade network security.
