SYDNEY, Nov 24, 2022 – Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cybersecurity leader, today announced that 32% of Australian organisations have had customer records compromised multiple times over the past 12 months as they struggle to profile and defend an expanding attack surface.
The findings come from Trend Micro’s semi-annual Cyber Risk Index (CRI) report, compiled by the Ponemon Institute from interviews with over 4,100 organisations across North America, Europe, Latin/South America, and Asia-Pacific.
To read a full copy of the latest Cyber Risk Index, please visit: www.trendmicro.com/cyberrisk
Mick McCluney, ANZ Technical Director, Trend Micro, said: “You can’t protect what you can’t see. But with hybrid working ushering in a new era of complex, distributed IT environments, many organisations are finding it difficult to eradicate growing security coverage and visibility gaps. To avoid the attack surface spiralling out of control, they need to combine asset discovery and monitoring with threat detection and response on a single platform.”
The CRI calculates the gap between organisational preparedness and the likelihood of being attacked, with -10 representing the highest level of risk. The Australian CRI index moved from –0.06 in 2H 2021 to –0.54 in 1H 2022, indicating a surging level of risk over the past six months.
This trend is also reflected elsewhere in the data: the number of Australian organisations experiencing a “successful” cyber-attack increased from 76% to 87% over the same period. Unsurprisingly, the number now expected to be compromised over the coming year has also increased from 87% to 91%.
Some of the top preparedness risks highlighted by the index report are related to attack surface discovery capabilities. It is often challenging for security professionals to identify the physical location of business-critical data assets and applications.
From the business perspective, the biggest concern is threat sharing. Based on the scores given by Australian respondents, “My organisation is actively involved in threat sharing with other companies and government” only has a score of 3.62 out of 10.
By addressing the shortage of cybersecurity professionals and improving security processes and technology, organisations will significantly reduce their vulnerability to attacks.
Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute: “The CRI continues to provide a fascinating snapshot of how global organisations perceive their security posture and the likelihood of being attacked. The stakes couldn’t be higher in the face of stiff macroeconomic headwinds. Respondents pointed to the high cost of outside expertise, damage to critical infrastructure, and lost productivity as the main negative consequences of a breach.”
Overall, respondents rated the following as the top cyber threats in 1H 2022:
- Clickjacking
- Server side injection (SSI)
- Advanced Persistent Threats
- Ransomware
- Login attacks (Credential Theft)
About Trend Micro
Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity leader, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fueled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro’s cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organisations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. As a leader in cloud and enterprise cybersecurity, the platform delivers a powerful range of advanced threat defence techniques optimised for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. With 7,000 employees across 65 countries, Trend Micro enables organisations to simplify and secure their connected world. www.TrendMicro.com.au
