66 per cent manufacturing co's face increased risks from unsecured IoT devices: Report

Palo Alto Networks conducted a survey of 200 Indian IT decision-makers, CTOs, CIOs, and Senior Directors to understand the state of cybersecurity in India.

"Our findings show that the transport, manufacturing, and public sectors have borne the brunt of advanced attacks," said Anil Valluri, Managing Director & Regional Vice President of India & SAARC, Palo Alto Networks.

The survey findings revealed that despite a 75 per cent increase in cybersecurity budget allocation for 2023 compared to the previous year, India experienced the highest number of disruptive cyber-attacks.

"While budgets may be expanding, it is essential to utilise these resources diligently. Enterprises, regardless of their size, must proactively adopt a Zero Trust architecture to secure distributed enterprise networks. Automating the SOC is also essential for improving efficiency, enabling faster detection and response to cyber threats, and allowing analysts to focus on strategic initiatives," said Valluri.

"The convergence of IT and OT has made lateral threat movement easier than ever and defending against it requires robust security automation and orchestration," he added.

Key findings from the survey include:

Industries:

66 per cent of manufacturing companies faced increased risks from unsecured IoT devices connected to the network.
83 per cent of Transport and Logistics organisations perceive their risk level as high or very high.
48 per cent of Indian Public, Transport and Logistics organisations and 50 per cent of Manufacturing organizations sectors believe 5G adoption will widen security loopholes.

Cybersecurity risks:

45 per cent Indian businesses saw more than 50 per cent increase in disruptive attacks - the highest in APAC.
At 35 per cent Indian organizations are more concerned about social engineering attacks than the APAC average (29 per cent).
94 per cent of Indian organisations perform regular assessments and forensics for OT related cybersecurity incidents, this is positive news.
On the other hand, 24 per cent of these organisations have their OT systems connected with their Enterprise IT network (not fully air gapped or protected via a dematerialized zone), a definite cause of concern.

Security outlook:

India leads APAC in cloud migration, with 80 per cent of businesses already having a large proportion of infrastructure on the cloud.
42 per cent of Indian organizations say they are adjusting their cybersecurity strategy to adopt cloud security.
94 per cent of Indian organizations said they have a 5G strategy in place. However, 45 per cent of these organizations said that proper segmentation of 5G networks was of top concern to them (highest in APAC).