Credit: Aruba
The majority (75 per cent) of Asia Pacific (APAC) IT security teams believe that their Internet of Things (IoT) devices are not secure, as the region lags behind global counterparts.
Furthermore, artificial intelligence(AI)-based security tools are seen as critical to alleviate the lack of security personnel allowing them to manage other more high-level aspects of the organisation’s security program.
According to findings from the Ponemon Institute - conducted on behalf of Aruba - 29 per cent of APAC customers currently use some form of machine-learning or other AI-based security solution, with another 29 per cent stating they plan on deploying these types of products within the next 12 months.
Continuous monitoring of network traffic, closed-loop detection and response systems, and detecting behavioural anomalies among peer groups of IoT devices, were cited as the most effective approaches to better protect their environments.
"Despite massive investments in cyber security programs, our research found most businesses are still unable to stop advanced, targeted attacks – with 59 per cent believing they are not realising the full value of their defence arsenal, which ranges from 10 to 75 security solutions,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman of Ponemon Institute.
"The situation has become a ‘perfect storm,’ with nearly half of respondents saying it is very difficult to protect complex and dynamically changing attack surfaces, especially given the current lack of security staff with the necessary skills and expertise to battle today’s persistent, sophisticated, highly trained, and well-financed attackers.
"Against this backdrop, AI-based security tools, which can automate tasks and free up IT personnel to manage other aspects of a security program, were viewed as critical for helping businesses keep up with increasing threat levels."
The study found that a key gap in a company’s overall security strategy was their inability to identify attacks that use IoT devices as the point of entry.
APAC faired particularly badly compared to global counterparts with only 48 per cent of regional respondents stating network access control (NAC) as an important element in the organisation’s overall security strategy and critical for reducing the reach of inside exploits, compared to 65 per cent globally.
Furthermore, only 16 per cent of APAC respondents are confident that they know all the users and devices connected to their network all the time despite 74 per cent of APAC respondents saying that their organisation’s deploy NAC.
Globally, 55 per cent of respondents said it is hard to protect expanding and blurring IT perimeters resulting from requirements to concurrently support IoT, BYOD, mobile, and cloud initiatives.
Another security identified security risk was found to be the lack of knowledge on who was responsible for the organisation's security with only 33 per cent identifying the CIO with no other executive or functional group achieving response totals above 20 per cent.
"The insight gained from this study enables us to continually improve our ability to provide an enterprise wired and wireless network security framework with an integrated and more comprehensive approach for gaining back visibility and control,” said Larry Lunetta, vice president of security solutions marketing at Aruba.
