Sixty-three percent of cybersecurity professionals in India say their role is more stressful now than it was five years ago, according to the newly released 2024 State of Cybersecurity survey report from ISACA, a global professional association advancing trust in technology.
The annual study, sponsored by Adobe, showcases the feedback of more than 1,800 cybersecurity professionals worldwide on topics related to the cybersecurity workforce and threat landscape. According to the data from 122 Indian cybersecurity professionals, the top reasons for this increased stress are:
- An increasingly complex threat landscape (87 percent)
- Insufficiently trained staff (54 percent)
- Worsening hiring/retention challenges (53 percent)
- Lack of prioritization of cybersecurity risks (44 percent).
- Low budget (40 percent)
Increasing Cybersecurity Attacks
In line with this sentiment around challenging threats, 29 percent of Indian respondents say their organizations are experiencing increased cybersecurity attacks. These top attack types include social engineering (16 percent), malware (12 percent), denial of service (11 percent) and zero-day exploit (11 percent).
On top of that, more than one-fourth (28 percent) of respondents from India expect a cyberattack on their organization in the next year, and more than half (57 percent) have a high degree of confidence in their team’s ability to detect and respond to cyber threats.
“Social engineering attacks, such as phishing, are a growing concern for organizations as human error remains a major factor in data breaches,” said Mike Mellor, VP of Cyber Operations at Adobe. “With the increasing frequency and sophistication of these attacks, it’s essential for organizations to adopt secure authentication methods to strengthen their defenses. Adobe believes that fostering a deep security culture among all employees through anti-phishing training, combined with stronger controls such as zero-trust networks protected by phishing-resistant authentication, are essential in safeguarding any organization.”
Resource Challenges
Despite an increasingly difficult threat landscape, the survey shows cybersecurity budgets and staffing are not keeping pace. Nearly half (47 percent) say that cyber budgets are underfunded, and 49 percent expect budgets will increase in the next year.
In terms of hiring, 46 percent of India-based organizations say their cybersecurity teams are understaffed, and respondents in India indicate that:
- 30 percent of organizations have no open positions.
- 48 percent of organizations have non-entry level cybersecurity positions open.
- 24 percent have entry-level positions open.
“Despite the increase in the awareness of cybersecurity threats, many organizations in India and even globally are still underfunding their cybersecurity budgets,” said RV Raghu, director, Versatilist Consulting India Pvt Ltd, and ISACA India Ambassador.