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News Desk

The Statesman

Publication Date : 10-12-2012

About 80 per cent of Indian businesses have high confidence in their security behaviour, with 75 per cent respondents as compared to 45 per cent of global peers expecting information security spends to go up, according to a study. 

The study “The State of Information Security Survey – India, 2013” by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in its assessment of the state of information security in organisations in India, stated that 80 per cent of respondents had confidence in the security behaviour instilled in their organisation. 

A significant 45 per cent believe that their organisations exhibit attributes of information security leader and a whopping 75 per cent respondents from India as compared to 45 per cent of global peers expect an increase in spending on information security. 

Almost 85 per cent of respondents claimed a strong alignment of their security strategy with their business objectives. On the flip side, there is a lag reported in the security strategy around new technologies, including mobile devices, cloud and social media. 

Reiterating the positive findings of the report, Sivarama Krishnan, executive director of PwC India, said: “The smartest organisations in the country are bringing together strategy, technology and market intelligence in a way that stacks them at the top of the information security league tables. This is great news for our services sector, with its strong focus on outsourcing. We are clearly working with global best practices and in some cases doing even better.” 

The report stated that while financial services companies are striving to maintain leadership in information security practices, telecom, information communications and entertainment companies are gaining ground, especially leading in information security strategies for new technologies--mobile, social media, cloud computing. Consumer, industrial products and services too are improving their information security capabilities. 

The study said nearly 60 per cent of respondents claim that information security linked operational and capital expenditures have not witnessed any deferrals in their organisations. It said 46 per cent of the respondents reported that economic environment and business continuity and disaster recovery were primary among the critical factors influencing security budgets. Regulatory compliance is the key justification provided by executives for increase in information security spending. 

The report said while reported security incidents have increased three-fold in India, financial losses due to security breaches have decreased significantly. Yet, data aver that respondents do not measure losses completely.