India and Japan report stronger concern over cyber threats

Security operations teams in India and Japan see the growing volume of cyber threats and security incidents as their biggest challenge amid the Covid-19 pandemic, more so than their counterparts in other parts of the world.

According to the 2020 State of security operations study by Micro Focus and research firm CyberEdge Group, 58% of respondents in India and 47% in Japan reported stronger concern over security threats in comparison with their global peers (45%).

To cope with the growing volume of attacks, over 93% of respondents employ artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to improve their threat detection capabilities, and more than 89% expect to use or acquire a security orchestration and automated response (Soar) tool within the next 12 months.

In India, cloud-based security tools are often preferred, with 75% of respondents reportedly using IT security operations software and services in the cloud, while other countries report a range from 59% to 64%.

As security operations centres continue to mature, Micro Focus expects more organisations to deploy next-generation tools and capabilities at an unprecedented rate to address gaps in security, as well as to prioritise security incidents and monitor security across a growing attack surface.

“Troubled with the shortage of IT security professionals, more in India and Japan are turning to tools like cloud deployment, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to proactively safeguard the enterprise amidst the rising security threats,” said Stephen McNulty, president for Asia-Pacific and Japan at Micro Focus.  

“The hunt for people with tech skills in Asia has intensified exponentially during the pandemic and security operations teams are stretched thin as they tackle the skyrocketing cyber threats and security incidents – accelerated by workforce usage of unmanaged devices.

“We can expect to see an unprecedented rate of deployment of next-generation tools and capabilities as organisations scramble to close this crucial gap.”

According to the report, security operations teams are using a plethora of tools to secure critical information, with organisations widely using 11 common types of security operations tools.

However, these tools do not inherently have a response component, functioning more as a detection tool akin to a fire alarm that is not connected to sprinklers.

As such, organisations will need to have a clearly defined playbook on how to respond to different types of cyber threat, manage vulnerabilities and harness threat intelligence.

“The playbook can be automated, manual, or both, to give analysts the degree of standardisation and scale they need to manage security incidents properly,” said Roland Lau, vice-president for managed security services at Singapore’s Ensign InfoSecurity.