One in four targeted cyber attacks succeed, but S'pore companies still confident about security: Accenture survey

MOST Singapore companies are confident about their ability to protect themselves from cyber attacks, but one in four targeted breach attempts succeed, according to a new security survey from Accenture.

This equates to two to three effective attacks per month for the average company in the past 12 months.

In a report titled Building Confidence: Facing the Cybersecurity Conundrum, findings show that the average organisation in Singapore faces up to 138 targeted cyber attacks per year, higher than the global average of 106.

Cyber security strategies among businesses in Singapore focus less on protecting customer information at 35 per cent, compared to the global average of 49 per cent.

It was also found that less than one-third of Singapore companies (31 per cent) would invest in mitigating financial losses caused by cyber security, while only 8 per cent of Singapore respondents said that they would invest in cyber security training, lower than 17 per cent globally.

"Cyber attacks are becoming an operational reality across industries and types of organisations, and our survey shows that detecting criminal behaviour, internally or externally, and overcoming threats requires more than just relying on existing strategies and investments. Organisations in Singapore need to improve the alignment of their cyber security plans with business imperatives," said Joshua Kennedy-White, Asia-Pacific lead for Accenture Security.

On the bright side, 30 per cent of organisations in Singapore plan to increase their cyber security investment "significantly (two times or more)" in the next three years, compared with the global average of 16 per cent.