AI-driven Cloud only can protect Indian firms from hackers: Microsoft

With Indian firms losing millions annually owing to cyber attacks, key leadership across industries are now in a huddle and discussions over securing data is now a critical part of boardroom settings, Keshav Dhakad, Group Head and Assistant General Counsel, Corporate, External & Legal Affairs (CELA), Microsoft India, has stressed.

A large-sized enterprise in India loses an average of $10.3 million owing to cyber attacks and a mid-sized organisation an average of $11,000 annually, a Microsoft-led study said recently.

"From CEOs to CTOs, from large-sized enterprises to start-ups, securing data on-premise and in the Cloud has become paramount in India. Cyber attacks are growing in leaps and bounds and endpoint security is the key, be it on-prim or in Cloud," Dhakad told IANS during the Microsoft's Media and Analyst Day here.

Cyber security attacks have resulted in job losses across different functions in more than three in five (64 per cent) organisations that have experienced cyber attacks, revealed the Frost and Sullivan study commissioned by Microsoft last month.

"With traditional IT boundaries disappearing, the adversaries now have many new targets to attack. Hackers are always a step ahead, waiting for new loopholes to emerge and need just one worker to click on a spam link to corrupt systems within the organisation," said Dhakad.

More than three in five organisations (62 per cent) surveyed in India have either experienced a cyber security incident (30 per cent) or are not sure if they had one as they have not performed proper forensics or data breach assessment (32 per cent).

"Since start-ups are being born in the Cloud, they already have top-of-the-line security in place. For traditional enterprises, the Cloud journey has just taken off. Microsoft is ready with its state-of-the-art security solutions for both on-prim and Cloud requirements," informed Dhakad.

According to Microsoft, nine in 10 (92 per cent) Indian organisations are looking to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance their cyber security strategy.

"AI with Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge is an answer to the companies' need to secure their data as most of those cannot hire teams to manually do the task.

"Since human is the weakest link when it comes to hacking, AI-driven models can better do the job of keeping real-time tab on threats coming in, and mitigating those before any damage is done," said Dhakad.

(Nishant Arora has been invited for Microsoft Media Day in Bengaluru. He can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)

--IANS

na/bg