Organisations in Vietnam are facing longer downtimes caused by cybersecurity breaches, compared to the regional and global averages, according to a recent Cisco study.

Organizations in Vietnam are facing longer downtimes caused by cybersecurity breaches.
(Photo: Cisco) 

The Cisco’s 2019 Asia Pacific CISO Benchmark Study was released this week.

Almost a third of companies in Vietnam were offline for 24 hours or more after their most severe breach in the past one year, compared to just four percent globally and 23 percent in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Vietnam number is a huge rise from last year, when only 15 percent of organisations in the country suffered downtime of 24 hours or more.

The study is based on a survey of almost 2,000 security professionals from across the region. It highlights that security practitioners in Vietnam are being kept busy.

According to the study, 36 percent of respondents reported receiving more than 10,000 threat alerts a day, while 26 percent said they received more than 50,000 alerts per day.

With a high number of cyber threats, the real challenge lies in what comes after an alert is received, how many of the alerts are investigated, and how many of those found to be genuine are eventually remediated.

The good news is that companies in Vietnam are doing better than the Asia-Pacific average on both those fronts.

According to the study, businesses investigated 51 percent of the threats, compared to 44 percent across Asia-Pacific.

Of the threats found to be genuine, 45 percent were addressed, up from 44 percent last year.

Companies in Vietnam are doing better in remediating legitimate alerts compared to the regional and global averages, which stood at 38 percent and 43 percent respectively.

Vietnamese companies have also seen a big decline in the financial impact of cyber breaches. Among the respondents, 18 percent said the most severe breach in the past one year cost them more than one million dollars. This is a huge decline from a year ago, when 77 percent of companies reported a financial impact of a million dollars or more.

According to Luong Thi Le Thuy, managing director at Cisco Vietnam as digital maturity and adoption increases across Vietnam, there has been an increased awareness of cybersecurity among businesses.

The study highlights that the use of multiple vendors is adding to the complexity for security professionals.

According to the report, 31 percent of companies are using more than 10 vendors. While the number is better than the global average of 39 percent, it is still posing a challenge for companies.