Coping with organisational cybersecurity challenges today
Digitalisation isn't slowing down – and neither are cyber attacks. What are organisations doing, and what are some best practices to pursue? People Matters speaks with Lucas Salter, General Manager, Data Protection Solutions at Dell Technologies Asia Pacific & Japan
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By Mint Kang
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yber attacks have been on the rise for the last few years, and the shift to remote work that accompanied the pandemic has worsened the situation. Data from 2021 indicates that cyber attacks increased by over 50 percent year on year, with organisations facing between 800-1,000 attacks weekly, or even more depending on their location and industry. And these attacks are very costly. A single ransomware attack today, for example, can cost an organisation upwards of $2 million. “The acceleration of digital transformation in organisations and the shift to work from home have created a broader surface attack area | June 2022
and more valuable data,” explained Lucas Salter, General Manager for the data protection solutions division at Dell Technologies Asia Pacific and Japan. “That increases the benefit to cyber criminals. The environment has gotten more complex, the problem has gotten more complex, and it's not going away.” People Matters caught up with Salter to ask for his perspective on what organisations are doing to cope and what else they can do in an era of heightened cyber danger. Here are the highlights of the conversation.
You're working with organisations across a wide
range of industries. What are you seeing in terms of their attitudes toward cybersecurity today? We are generally seeing attitudes of heightened awareness, where they are looking at how to potentially sustainably solve the problem or stay ahead of the problem. But we also still see some organisations that think they are not at risk because they're not a bank or a critical infrastructure organisation. In reality, we are seeing every vertical in every industry attacked without discrimination. Investment in cybersecurity is also increasing. In the Asia Pacific and Japan, IDC forecasts that the compound annual growth rate of cybersecurity spending up until 2025 will be greater than 14%. That double-digit increase in spending demonstrates that organisations realise there's a gap between their capabilities and their needs, and they are trying to
