Sydney, 8 August, 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, breaches, and further complexities brought about by Artificial Intelligence.

The survey found that ransomware remains a growing concern for Australia. The study also reveals that 50% of organisations that experienced ransomware attacks in the last two years said they paid the ransom, despite having issued public pledges against doing so. Interestingly, Australian figures measure up better compared to its neighbours, with a massive 70% of regional companies admitting to have paid ransoms, and 59% of them having publicly pledged not to do so.

The survey also revealed that 41% of respondents said their organisation experienced data breaches^[1] in the past 12 months, with 33% of them indicating they suffered from 11 or more breaches. The industries that saw the most breaches were Manufacturing (63%), Transportation (57%), and Education (48%). Artificial Intelligence adds further complexity to the current security landscape, with 92% of respondents indicating they are concerned about AI increasing the sophistication and severity of breaches.

“In our current environment the impact of cyberattacks is being felt at every level, cybersecurity leaders face growing scrutiny, coupled with limited resources. Moreover, cybersecurity challenges are becoming increasingly complex to manage. The intricate IT environments and architectures they oversee expose them to numerous threats. Cybersecurity leaders need to continuously evaluate their existing resources, tools, and strategies, so they can be empowered to know what is needed to protect their organisations from evolving cyber threats,” said Steve Bray, Head of Australia & New Zealand at Cloudflare.

“Regulation” and “compliance” also emerged as important themes in this year’s study. The survey shows that 32% of respondents said they spend more than 5% of their IT budget to address regulatory and compliance requirements. In addition, 31% of respondents reported spending more than 10% of their work week keeping pace with industry regulatory requirements and certifications. However, this investment in regulation and compliance has had a positive impact on businesses, such as improving the integrity of the organisation’s technology and data (49%), improving the organisation’s baseline privacy and/or security levels (49%), and improving the organisation’s reputation and brand (43%).

Defending against cyberattacks continues to be a priority, with 79% of respondents revealing that more than 10% of their organisation’s IT budget was spent on cybersecurity.

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) organizations. 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 organizations 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 organization 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 organizations – 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 https://radar.cloudflare.com.

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