Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW), the global cybersecurity leader, released Singapore findings from its Asia-Pacific Cloud Security Study on the state of cloud security among large organisations with over 200 employees, conducted by Ovum Research. 

Key findings:

• Cybersecurity decision makers in Singapore place high trust towards security bundled with cloud services by cloud providers:

  • 69 percent of Singapore organisations view the security offered by cloud service providers to be sufficient in protecting them from cloud-related threats 

• Singapore organisations have many security tools but do not have a unified view of threats across all cloud deployments:

  • More than half (56%) of large Singapore organisations have over 10 security tools operating simultaneously

  • Three in five large organisations in Singapore do not have a unified view of the threats it faces across all clouds 

• Large organisations in Singapore do not have enough time and resources dedicated to cloud security audits and trainings:

  • 13 percent of Singapore organisations has never conducted an audit of their cybersecurity posture and 64% does so less than once a year

  • Furthermore, 27% of such audits do not include an assessment of cloud security

  • 58 percent of Singapore organisations do not provide cybersecurity training to IT security employees on a yearly basis

  • It is therefore not surprising that staff outside of IT departments receive even less training – 73% of non-IT professionals do not receive cybersecurity training on a yearly basis. 

Quote

• “Cloud and cybersecurity decision makers in Singapore need to realise that cloud security is a shared responsibility. They will need to take a proactive approach in securing sensitive corporate information and applications stored on the cloud, instead of merely relying on security offered by the service providers.”
  
  - Elaine Liew, regional vice president for Cloud, Asia Pacific, Palo Alto Networks 

• “The ubiquity of multi-cloud deployments in large organisations calls for a unified view of all cloud-native services. It is ideal for organisations to have a central console that uses technologies such as artificial intelligence to help prevent known and unknown malware threats, and quickly remediate accidental data exposure when it arises.”
  
  - Andrew Milroy, head of advisory services, Asia Pacific, Ovum

Recommendations

Despite awareness of cybersecurity challenges, organisations are not prepared for the security threats posed by cloud technology. Organisations are recommended to always include cybersecurity planning as part of their cloud adoption and cloud migration processes:

• Building security into the cloud environment from the get-go; security should be an enabler to accelerate cloud adoption.

• Developing consistent security policies across all types of cloud deployments, which can be implemented properly through the help of tools that provide a unified view of all cloud assets and the threats they face. 

• Allowing for frictionless deployment and easy scalability in multi-cloud environments, bridging the gap between highly controlled security teams and highly agile development teams.

• Increasing audits and training for employees, both IT and non-IT.

• Automating threat intelligence with natively integrated, data-driven, analytics-based approaches (leveraging machine learning/artificial intelligence) to avoid human error.

Survey methodology

The survey was conducted amongst 100 respondents from large businesses in Singapore. 

The companies surveyed needed to have 200+ employees and all had to be using public cloud as a minimum. The respondents to the survey ranged from owners to business directors and C level executives; they all either had to be the final decision maker or the influencer when it came to the organisations’ cloud strategy. 

Learn More

• ‘The Asia-Pacific Cloud Security Study’ report features analysis and best practices that can be implemented to help companies in Asia-Pacific protect themselves from cloud-based threats.

Media contacts:
Neil Mirano
Rice Communications on behalf of Palo Alto Networks
+65 9838 4609
paloaltonetworks@ricecomms.com