Digitalisation brings with it cyber risks too

ALKESH SHARMA / Emirates Business

Digital transformation is the crucial key to success of businesses in the Middle East. However, the journey towards digitalisation also calls
for state-of-the-art and ultra-secure systems, which can prevent cyber-attacks.
According to the experts, with corporates hunting for maintainable diversity and innovative resources of growth through cutting-edge digital strategies, enterprises in this region are also exposing themselves to more threats in the cyber sphere. The Cisco Annual Security Report 2016 estimates that cyber-crime could cost businesses nearly $2.1 trillion globally by 2019, which is four times more than the estimated cost in 2015.
“Cyber security is one area that is most of the times inadvertently ignored by the decision makers of the company; resulting into irreparable damages. Financial institutions in the Middle East have emerged as one of the most vulnerable entities to the cyber threats,” Mohammad Ali, a cyber-expert, working as an IT consultant with Dotnet Solutions (a Germany-based IT start-up) in Dubai, told Emirates Business.
“Many times we come to know about the cyber damage at latter stages from where it is almost impossible to recover. Therefore only solution is to always stay alert and take precautionary measures in advance,” said Ali.
In a recent survey, over 70 percent of top executives feel that cyber security threats are significantly hindering their digital drives.
Karan Patel, Marketing Manager – 2GIS UAE, a top technology company that provides business listing, location and mapping services, told Emirates business, “Many encouraging things are happening in the pursuit of digital transformation and Internet of Things (IoT) and wearables are some of the very promising technologies. However, this advancement brings along many vulnerable issues that are needed to be addressed immediately.”
“With technology progression, security of the systems gets more
complicated as it gives cyber criminals more entry points. Earlier, it was easy to secure systems but now even a single loose-end could cost millions to the enterprises,” he pointed out.
According to reports, just 45 percent of companies globally are confident about their cyber safety as
they believe that cyber criminals have become much more advanced and they are using very strong campaigns to gain entry into protected organisations.
“Technology is developing very fast; even attackers have become so resilient and they are using sophisticated strategies to breach the secure systems of enterprises. As we know that breaches are now the new normal, the good news is that all businesses have started to think: how do we ensure security differently,” said Adam Philpott, Director of Cyber-security at Cisco EMEA.
“As our customers embrace the move to digital, security becomes truly a front and center concern,” he pointed out.