80% of Indian firms face cyber attacks due to miscommunication in IT security

New Delhi: More than half of top-tier managers in India (80 per cent) admit that a miscommunication with the IT department or IT security team has resulted in at least one cybersecurity incident in their firms, a new report said on Monday.

According to the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, in terms of personal attitudes, the majority of non-IT executives (48 per cent) cited a decreased sense of cooperation among different teams and stated that the situation causes them to question their colleagues’ skills and abilities when communicating with their IT-security employees is unclear (43 per cent).

“Clear communication between a company’s executives and IT security management is a prerequisite for corporate business security,” said Alexey Vovk, Head of Information Security at Kaspersky.

“On the other hand, business should also understand that information security in the 21st century is an integral part of business and budgeting for it is an investment in protecting company assets,” he added.

Moreover, the report said that 100 per cent of non-IT respondents experienced miscommunications regarding IT security.

With regards to consequences, most often a breakdown in communications leads to serious project delays (81 per cent) and cybersecurity incidents (80 per cent).

“The heightened threat of cyberattacks has changed this dynamic, with executives and IT security departments needing to work closely together to minimize damage and disruption,” said Dipesh Kaura, GM, South Asia, Kaspersky.

In addition to worsening business indicators, unclear communication with IT-security employees has an emotional impact on the team and causes executives to question IT-security employees’ skills and abilities, the report mentioned.

Further, about 48 per cent of executives admit that misunderstandings make them lose confidence in the business’s safety and 37 per cent of them find this situation makes them nervous, which affects their work performance.