- One of the underlying reasons for disparity appears to be a lack of trust in local expertise< Kaspersky study shows.
A Kaspersky study highlights a concerning disparity in the levels of cyber protection across geographically distributed businesses in Saudi Arabia.
According to the report, while 52 per cent of respondents were confident that their headquarters (HQ) enjoyed effective protection from cyber threats, the remaining 48 per cent acknowledged a lack of parity in cybersecurity measures between the HQ and local offices.
Worryingly, 30 per cent of these companies recognised the problem but did not consider it critical, while 18 per cent admitted that only a few of their branches were adequately protected.
A significant risk
“Although the most sensitive data may be held centrally, access to the company’s assets is clearly required from several locations, and when they are not as well protected as head office, it creates security risks for the whole organisation. Perhaps, there is a misconception that a lower level of protection will suffice for sites that play a secondary role in the company’s structure,” Anton Solovey, Senior Product Manager (XDR) at Kaspersky, said.
However, he said that cybercriminals don’t care which place gets attacked – be it head office or its branches – they can penetrate the company’s infrastructure from any location. Therefore, it’s important to enable protection that is equally effective at all sites.
The disparity in cybersecurity poses a significant risk to the entire organisation, as cybercriminals can exploit vulnerabilities in any location to infiltrate the company’s infrastructure.
One of the underlying reasons for this disparity appears to be a lack of trust in local expertise. In 54 per cent of cases, the HQ took full responsibility for cybersecurity activities in the branches, citing insufficient knowledge and qualifications among local staff.
Even in 40 per cent of instances where cybersecurity tasks were shared between the HQ and local teams, the HQ maintained oversight and control.