KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 — Around half of Malaysian organisations surveyed by network services firm Cloudflare Inc said they encountered more than 10 cybersecurity incidents in the past year, according to its recently released study.
Cloudflare said its report focusing on cybersecurity in Asia-Pacific titled “Securing the Future: Asia Pacific Cybersecurity Readiness Survey” said the reported cybersecurity incidents were primarily linked to web attacks, phishing, and compromised business emails — with respondents saying the cybercriminals planned to plant spyware, ransomware, or obtain financial gain.
“Cybersecurity incidents also proved costly for organisations in Malaysia, with 48 per cent of respondents indicating they incurred a financial impact of at least US$1 million (RM4.67 million) from cybersecurity incidents over the past 12 months.
“Respondents also cited the loss of the data/intellectual property, reputational damage, and a loss/reduction of customers as the biggest impact felt by their organisations outside of financial loss,” it said in a press release.
However, Cloudflare said that despite the frequent occurrence of cybersecurity incidents in Malaysia, only 37 per cent of respondents expressed being "highly prepared" to prevent such incidents.
It was also reported that the shortage of skilled professionals was identified as the major challenge in terms of cybersecurity readiness.
This, it said could lead to cybersecurity incidents extending to organisational operations, as noted by 35 per cent of respondents which include pausing growth plans, temporarily suspending operations, imposing restrictions on hybrid work, and reporting incidents to authorities.
“In light of the increasing complexity of the cybersecurity landscape faced by organisations in Malaysia, there is a pressing need to enhance resilience and defences against cyber incidents,” said Jonathan Dixon, its vice-president and managing director for Asia Pacific, Japan, and China said in the statement.
“Business leaders must acknowledge the urgency of fostering a robust cybersecurity culture throughout the organisation at all levels and commit to the essential investments required for this purpose.”
Based in San Francisco, Cloudflare provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, and domain registration services.
It said the survey was conducted in July this year, involving 4,009 cyber security decision-makers and leaders in 14 markets including Malaysia.
Between 203 and 426 respondents from each country were surveyed online and recruited via general business panels.
