Kaspersky Lab unveiled a new study in partnership with B2B International at GITEX Technology Week 2017.
Kaspersky Lab unveiled a new study in partnership with B2B International at GITEX Technology Week 2017. The study, named ‘IT Security: cost-center or strategic investment?’ reveals the five IT security incidents that have the most severe financial impact on organizations in the Middle East, Turkey and South Africa. The report states that in 2017, enterprises in these regions paid up to $1.5M for incidents involving electronic data leaks from their internal systems, and more than $1M for incidents affecting suppliers that they share data with. Meanwhile, SMBs lost $141K when employees used IT resources inappropriately and $118K when there was an incident affecting infrastructure hosted by a third party.
Even though the cost of a cybersecurity incident is growing, the proportion of IT budgets spent on IT security in META is declining: 62% of companies in the Middle East, Turkey and South African regions are investing in cybersecurity, which is 3% less than last year. The average IT security budget for enterprises dropped from 23% of IT budgets to 19% in 2017. This is a concern for businesses, especially given the fact that - unlike IT security budgets – it’s not getting cheaper to recover from security breaches. This year, large enterprises in the region paid an average $591K per security incident, while SMBs faced an $88K bill per attack.
The high cost of cyber incidents associated with third parties is another pain point unveiled by the report. As soon as a business gives another organization access to its data or infrastructure, weaknesses in one may affect them both. This issue is becoming increasingly important as governments rush to introduce new legislations, requiring organizations to provide information about how they share and protect personal data.
“Overspending on cybersecurity is not the way forward. It is important for organizations to choose the right security vendor that will correctly address their cybersecurity needs. However, threats in this part of the world are moving fast and the costs associated with cyber incidents are constantly rising. It is therefore becoming critical for organizations to invest in threat intelligence services, and combine these with the most appropriate security solutions that will mitigate potential harm. Here at GITEX we are demonstrating our next generation solutions, which are designed to help public and private organizations cope with evolving threats”, said Maxim Frolov, Managing Director for the Middle East Turkey and Africa at Kaspersky Lab.
To help businesses with their IT security strategies, based on the industry threat landscape and specific recommendations, Kaspersky Lab has introduced the Kaspersky IT Security Calculator. This business tool is the ultimate guide to the cost of IT security based on average business budgets (by region, industry and company size), security measures, the major threat vectors, money losses and tips on how to avoid a compromise. The Kaspersky IT Security Calculator and the full report ‘IT Security: cost-center or strategic investment?’ can be found here, and will also be on display at our GITEX Technology Week 2017 booth at Stand C1-1 in Hall 1.
Kaspersky Lab offers solutions that cover the various needs of enterprise and SMB companies related to endpoint protection, DDoS protection, cloud security, advanced threat defense and cybersecurity services. To learn more about our next generation enterprise portfolio and products for small and medium sized businesses, please visit the official GITEX Technology week website.
