Data breach incidents in India higher than global average

Data breach incidents in India have been higher compared to the global average, according to a survey conducted by defence grade technology maker Thales.

"Around 52 per cent of Indian respondents reported a data breach last year, way above the global average of around 36 per cent. A full three quarters (75 per cent) of respondents in India reported data breach at some time in the past, compared with just 67 per cent globally," James Cook, sales director South Asia, Thales eSecurity told PTI while sharing details of Thales Data Threat Report 2018.

Thales, a Rafale aircraft vendor, globally surveyed over 1,200 senior IT security managers, including 100 in India between October-November 2017.

Indian companies with revenue in the range of USD 100 million to 1 billion were covered in the study.

"This year's India Data Threat Report 2018 emphasizes the need for change in security strategies to prevent the continuous increase in data breaches and also highlights privacy and data protection practices," Emmanuel de Roquefeuil, vice-president and country director, Thales in India said.

Cook said that security breach is higher in India because they have been spending their budget either at wrong places or were more focussed only at the end points.

According to the study, 81 per cent respondents lay emphasis on endpoint or mobile defences - which is ranked at the top in terms of spending plans, while data-at-rest stood at the bottom with 54 per cent.

Data-at-rest are those information saved in archives, hard drives, thumb drives etc which many not be put to use frequently.

Cook said that Aadhaar is driving security spent in India and 93 per cent of organisations surveyed in the country are planning to increase their budget on IT security -- which is the highest in the world.

According to the report, strict privacy guidelines concerning Aadhaar, a 12-digit unique number, are driving far more Indian organisations to plan IT security spending increases than any other geographic or vertical market sector.

The study found that interest in data sovereignty continues to heat up as new data privacy regulations take effect.

Around 85 per cent of Indian respondents said they are affected by data privacy requirements compared to 87 per cent globally.

"In India, the top choice for satisfying data privacy laws is encryption at 30 per cent compared to 42 per cent globally, where it is also the top choice, followed by tokenisation at 25 per cent versus 20 per cent globally," the study said.

The study found that Indian companies are adopting advance technologies like big data, internet-of-things, mobile payments, blockchain at large levels.

All companies surveyed in India were using cloud technology, with 92 per cent of respondents sharing sensitive data on cloud system.

"We're now at the point where we have to admit that data breaches are the new reality with over half of organizations in India suffering a breach in the last year. In this increasingly data-driven world it is therefore hugely important that organizations take steps to protect that data wherever it is created, shared or stored," Cook said.