Cybersecurity spending for SMEs and enterprises in APAC to rise in ’23

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES

The increased complexity of computing infrastructure, a need to improve the level of specialist security expertise, and geopolitical or economic uncertainty are the main factors driving cybersecurity spending for small and medium businesses and enterprises, according to the latest edition of Kaspersky’s annual IT Security Economics report. According to a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers study, the increase in interest of businesses in cybersecurity caused by the use of digital technologies and the ever-evolving threat landscape has already resulted in improvements in IT security. To explore how much businesses currently spend on this crucial field and what their plans for further investments are, Kaspersky conducted 3,230 interviews across 26 countries from businesses with more than 50 employees. The respondents included 834 from Asia Pacific (APAC). The poll suggests that IT budgets for cybersecurity are set to increase again over the next three years for both SMBs and enterprises to cover a range of issues. Median cybersecurity budgets in 2022 were $3.75m for enterprises with $12.5m allocated for IT generally, while SMBs invested $150k in IT security from $375,000 median IT budgets.

In Asia Pacific (APAC), Kaspersky said SMBs and enterprises here are set to increase their online defense budget by 3 percent more than the global average at 14 percent. Among the reasons to increase cybersecurity spending, respondents from APAC especially noted the complexity of the IT infrastructure (61 percent for both local SMB and local enterprise), and a need to improve the level of specialist security expertise (56 percent for both sectors). New potential risks occurring due to increased geopolitical or economic uncertainty were highlighted as reasons for investment increases for 45 percent in SMBs and 50 percent in enterprise organizations.

“The recent Ernst and Young CEO Outlook Pulse revealed the combined pandemic-related disruptions, rising inflation, geopolitical tensions, and climate change haunted enterprises in the Asia Pacific region last year. Adding up to this are the cybersecurity incidents like data breaches and ransomware attacks which crippled major businesses in the region in 2022. Increasing spending on cybersecurity is a right step toward building companies’ defenses against cyberattacks and protecting their assets against black swans which 2023 may bring,” comments Chris Connell, managing director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky.

Meanwhile, Business Network International (BNI) reported that digital technology played an important role in its networking between members during the pandemic.

BNI Manila central business director Ronnie Marquez said the organization was able to generate huge business deals among its members through the use of digital technonlogy.

“In the Philippines, with over 40 chapters and more than 1,200 members, businesses generated P4 billion in the last 12 months alone. At the height of the pandemic, we quickly pivoted to digital solutions and were able to launch online chapters that helped ensure growth in terms of membership and what we call TYFCB [businesses passed between members across multiple industries],” Marquez said.

BNI Manila organized on February 10 the CONNECT MNL conference, which featured resource persons and business leaders who discussed different topics concerning business matters in the “new normal”. These included analyst Jonas Ravelas, business expert Ricky de Vera, and Lucien Dy Tioco of Philstar Media Group.

“Brankas has been a leader in open finance and continues to advocate for adoption across the region. Element is looking forward to supporting open finance products to make onboarding and authentication much easier and safer for our end users, and this product paves the way for more use cases in the future,” added Element Inc. CEO and cofounder Adam Perold.

Ex-Apple designer behind Charles III’s coronation emblem

BY DANICA KIRKA The Associated Press

LONDON—The official emblem of King Charles III’s coronation, created by former Apple chief designer Jony Ive and his associates, honors the monarch’s love of nature by joining the flora that symbolize the four nations of the United Kingdom in a single image.

The rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the daffodil of Wales and the shamrock of Northern Ireland form a picture of St. Edward’s Crown, which will be placed on the new king’s head when he is crowned May 6 at Westminster Abbey. The emblem revealed by Buckingham Palace on Friday is rendered in the colors of the Union flag, with the crown depicted in blue surrounded by further drawings of the four plants in red, all on a white background.

“The design was inspired by King Charles’ love of the planet, nature, and his deep concern for the natural world,” Ive said in a statement.

“The emblem speaks to the happy optimism of spring and celebrates the beginning of this new Carolean era for the United Kingdom.”

The emblem was designed by Ive and his creative collective, LoveFrom.

Ive holds some 14,000 patents globally, as well as honorary doctorates from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the Royal College of Art, where he is chancellor.

The emblem will be available for use for all activities associated with the coronation, including community and national events.

EU calls out Twitter for incomplete disinformation report

BY KELVIN CHAN

The Associated Press

LONDON—Twitter failed to provide a full report to the European Union on its efforts to combat online disinformation, drawing a rebuke Thursday from top officials of the 27-nation bloc.

The company signed up to the EU’s voluntary 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation last year—before billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought the social media platform.

All who signed up to the code, including online platforms, ad-tech companies and civil society, agreed to commit to measures aimed at reducing disinformation. They filed their first “baseline” reports last month showing how they’re living up to their promises.

Google, TikTok, Microsoft as well as Facebook and Instagram parent Meta showed “strong commitment to the reporting,” providing unprecedented detail about how they’re putting into action their pledges to fight false information, according to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm. Twitter, however, “provided little specific information and no targeted data,” it said.

“I am disappointed to see that Twitter report lags behind others and I expect a more serious commitment to their obligations stemming from the Code,” Vera Jourova, the commission’s executive vice president for values and transparency, said in a statement. “ Russia is engaged also in a full-blown disinformation war and the platforms need to live up to their responsibilities.”

In its baseline report, Twitter said it’s “making real advancements across the board” at fighting disinformation. The document came in at 79 pages, at least half the length of those filed by Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok.

Twitter did not respond to a request for further comment. The social media company’s press office was shut down and its communications team laid off after Musk bought it last year. Others whose job it was to keep harmful information off the platform have been laid off or quit.

EU leaders have grown alarmed about fake information thriving on online platforms, especially about the Covid-19 pandemic and Russian propaganda amid the war in Ukraine. Last year, the code was strengthened by connecting it with the upcoming Digital Services Act, new rules aimed at getting Big Tech companies to clean up their platforms or face big fines.

But there are concerns about what shows up on Twitter after Musk ended enforcement of its policy against Covid-19 misinformation and other moves such as dissolving its Trust and Safety Council that advised on problems like hate speech and other harmful content.

An EU evaluation done last spring before Musk bought Twitter and released in November found the platform took longer to review hateful content and removed less of it in 2022 compared with the previous year. Most other tech companies signed up to the voluntary code also scored worse.

Those signed up to the EU code have to fill out a checklist to measure their work on fighting disinformation, covering efforts to prevent fake news purveyors from benefiting from advertising revenue; the number of political ads labeled or rejected; examples of manipulative behavior such as fake accounts; and information on the impact of factchecking.

Twitter’s report was “short of data, with no information on commitments to empower the factchecking community,” the commission said.

Thierry Breton, the commissioner overseeing digital policy, said it’s “no surprise that the degree of quality” in the reports varies greatly, without mentioning Twitter.

The commission highlighted other tech companies’ actions for praise. Google’s report indicated that it prevented more than €13 million ($14 million) of advertising revenue from reaching disinformation actors, while TikTok’s report said it removed more than 800,000 fake accounts.

Meta said in its filing that it applied 28 million fact-checking labels on Facebook and 1.7 million on Instagram. Data indicated that a quarter of Facebook users and 38 percent of Instagram users don’t forward posts after seeing warnings that the content has been flagged as false by fact-checkers.