New Cloudflare survey reveals 87% of cybersecurity leaders are concerned about AI increasing the sophistication and severity of data breaches

Sydney, Australia, October 8, 2024 — Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud company, today released a new study focused on cybersecurity in Asia Pacific. The report, called “Navigating the New Security Landscape: Asia Pacific Cybersecurity Readiness Survey,” shares the latest data on cybersecurity preparedness in the region, revealing how organisations are coping with ransomware, data breaches, and complexities brought about by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Data Breaches on the Rise: How Companies Are Paying the Price

The survey found that 41% of respondents across Asia Pacific said their organisation experienced a data breach in the past 12 months, with 47% indicating they suffered from more than 10 data breaches. Of these, the industries that experienced the most data breaches included Construction and Real Estate (56%), Travel and Tourism (51%), and Financial Services (51%). Threat actors most frequently target customer data (67%), user access credentials (58%), and financial data (55%). Furthermore, the study reveals that 87% of respondents are concerned about AI increasing the sophistication and severity of data breaches.

AI: Changing the Threat Landscape

While AI boosts organisational efficiency, many fear that cybercriminals will increasingly exploit this technology, with 50% of our respondents anticipating AI will be used to crack passwords or encryption codes. Additionally, 47% believe AI will enhance phishing and social engineering attacks, while 44% expect it to advance DDoS attacks. Lastly, 40% foresee AI playing a role in creating deepfakes and facilitating privacy breaches.

Facing these evolving and diverse threats, 70% of respondents report their organisations are adapting how they operate. Key areas impacted by AI include governance and regulatory compliance (40%), cybersecurity strategy (39%), and vendor engagement (36%). Cybersecurity leaders are gearing up to tackle AI-driven risks, with every respondent expecting to deploy at least one AI-related security tool or measure. Top priorities include hiring generative AI analysts (45%), investing in threat detection and response systems (40%), and enhancing SIEM systems (40%). IT vendors remain critical, as 66% of respondents have already sought AI solutions from them.

Ransomware: A Rising Threat in Asia Pacific

Ransomware remains a growing concern across the entire region. The study reveals that 62% of organisations hit by ransomware paid the ransom, even though 70% had publicly vowed not to. Overall, a compromised Remote Desktop Protocol or VPN server (47%) proved to be the most common means of entry by threat actors.

There are significant variations across the region, though, with organisations in India (69%), Hong Kong (67%), Malaysia (50%), and Indonesia (50%) are most likely to pay ransoms, while South Korea (19%), Japan (19%), and New Zealand (22%) are the least likely to give in to ransomware demands.

“Cybersecurity leaders face growing pressure from cyberattacks, stricter regulations, and limited resources. To protect their organisations, they must constantly assess talent, budgets, and solutions,” said Grant Bourzikas, Chief Security Officer at Cloudflare.

Rising Regulatory Demands: Consuming Time and Resources

“Regulation” and “compliance” also emerged as important themes in this year’s study. The survey shows that 43% of respondents said they spend more than 5% of their IT budget to address regulatory and compliance requirements. In addition, 48% of respondents reported spending more than 10% of their work week keeping pace with industry regulatory and certification requirements. However, this investment in regulatory compliance has had a positive impact on businesses, such as improving organisation’s baseline privacy and/or security levels (59%), improving the integrity of organisation’s technology and data (57%), and improving the organisation’s reputation and brand (53%).

To find out more about the APAC Cybersecurity Study, please check out:

• Whitepaper download

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted on behalf of Cloudflare across a total of 3,844 cybersecurity decision-makers and leaders from small (250 to 999 employees), medium (1,000 to 2499 employees), and large (more than 2,500 employees) organisations. Respondents were drawn from a wide range of industries: Business & Professional Services; Construction & Real Estate; Education; Energy, Utilities & Natural Resources; Engineering & Automotive, Financial Services; Gaming; Government; Healthcare; IT & Technology; Manufacturing; Media & Telecoms; Retail; Transportation; Travel, Tourism & Hospitality. Respondents were based in 14 markets across Asia Pacific: Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam (n=201 to 405 per country), and were surveyed online and recruited via general business panels. The survey was aimed at building a better understanding of the threat landscape facing Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and their teams across the vast and varied territories of Asia Pacific, and the challenges they faced around paradigms like complexity, compliance and talent. The survey was conducted in June 2024.

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud company on a mission to help build a better Internet. It empowers organisations to make their employees, applications and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost. Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud delivers the most full-featured, unified platform of cloud-native products and developer tools, so any organisation can gain the control they need to work, develop, and accelerate their business.

Powered by one of the world’s largest and most interconnected networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its customers every day. It is trusted by millions of organisations – from the largest brands to entrepreneurs and small businesses to nonprofits, humanitarian groups, and governments across the globe.

Learn more about Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud at cloudflare.com/connectivity-cloud. Learn more about the latest Internet trends and insights at radar.cloudflare.com.

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