Lift Your Shield, Now
According to a report by cybersecurity firm CloudSek, India, US, Indonesia, and China accounted for 45 percent of total cyberattacks on government agencies worldwide in the second half of 2022, to say nothing of the attacks in the corporate realm. The explosion of the technology industry over the past few years has been a giant leap for the corporate realm, but came along was an extremely sensitive cyber threats scenario.
According to a recent IDC report, four out of five banks in Asia/Pacific will increase their technology budget in 2023, with security and data transformation as key investment areas. The IDC survey also revealed that 80.4 percent of banks plan to increase their budgets in security/identity and access management, followed by big data & analytics (68.4 percent) and artificial intelligence(AI)/machine learning solutions (64.6 percent). The priorities above indicate the increase in digital transactions and the subsequent urgency for banks to address the rapidly escalating security threats landscape. The focus is largely on institutionalized threat actors with AI-enhanced tools to combat security risks. The report also shows increasing investments in data transformation suites, thanks to banking data emerging as a significant commodity and driver of new revenue—to the tune of deploying new analytic frameworks and methodologies offering banks immense advantages over their competitors.
Other survey findings indicate that one of the largest pain points for banks when navigating digital transformation is maintaining stability and minimizing downtime (47.8 percent), followed by managing operational risks of migration (43.7 percent). Going forward, APeJ banks will prioritize enabling third-party integration (50.0 percent) and innovating corporate banking products via API (48.1 percent) over the next two years. Additionally, 70.6 percent of banks believe their ESG strategies will positively impact their profits in the next five years. The message is clear: lift your guard up or face the dire consequences.