Singapore stands out in security spend: Malwarebytes

Source: Osterman Research, in Malwarebytes report. Amounts that would be spent to remediate a major security event, Singapore vs global average, in US dollars. Singapore pays more in direct costs and fines compared to the global average. A major security event is defined as one where there is significant disruption to an organisation’s operations.

A new report released by Malwarebytes, the advanced malware prevention and remediation solution, reveals that Singaporean organisations have the largest security budgets across all countries surveyed, amounting to nearly S$1.4 million in 2017.

According to White Hat, Black Hat and the Emergence of the Gray Hat; The True Costs of Cybercrime, Singaporean organisations will continue to have the largest budgets in 2018: the security budget for a 2,500-employee Singaporean organisation was nearly S$1.4 million in 2017 and will grow to S$1.5 million in 2018. 

Despite the high spend, almost 80% of organisations have been hit by a cyberthreat during the past 12 months, most commonly by phishing, ransomware, adware and spyware. The total direct cost of cybercrime for Singaporean organisations is S$1.9 million. 

Key findings include:

- Four in five Singaporean organisations (78%) had been victimised by some type of security threat during the past 12 months, most commonly by phishing, ransomware, adware and spyware. Singaporean organisations experienced the highest rate of adware/spyware events among the organisations surveyed. The incidence of phishing attacks was also higher than the global average.

However, only 30% of the respondents think that these threats are “very serious”.

- Black hat (malicious hacker) activity is a growing threat in Singapore: 50% of the respondents know someone involved in black hat activities, and there is a perception that it is easy to get involved into cybercrime without being discovered. 

- In Singapore, the most vulnerable industries are healthcare, government agencies and financial services firms. 

• The leading target industry for ransomware was healthcare, although the food-processing and manufacturing industries were also likely targets for ransomware attacks. 
• For advanced persistent threat attacks, government agencies were the leading target.
• Financial services firms are the primary target for distributed denial of service (DDoS) and Trojan attacks.

The report also reveals data related to the security professionals’ salaries. Starting salaries for security professionals in Singapore are 12% higher than the global average. The average starting salary for a security professional among organisations in Singapore is just over S$93,360, higher than the global average of S$81,989. However, the average maximum salary for a Singaporean security professional at S$176,813 which is almost identical to the global average and lower than for counterparts in Australia and the US. The ratio between maximum and minimum salary is 1.89:1, the second-lowest among the nations surveyed.

“The current skills shortage combined with a constant stream of attacks against antiquated endpoint protection methods continue to drive up costs for businesses in Singapore today,” said Jeff Hurmuses, Area VP and MD, Asia Pacific, Malwarebytes. 

“On top of this, we are seeing more IT experts joining the black hat activity, causing damage to companies’ productivity, revenue, intellectual property (IP) and reputation. We need to up-level the need for proper security financing to the executive and board level discussions. This also means updating endpoint security solutions and properly recognising and rewarding the best and brightest security pros who manage endpoint protection, detection and remediation of threats to today’s businesses.”

Explore:

Read White Hat, Black Hat and the Emergence of the Gray Hat: The True Costs of Cybercrime

View Singapore findings from White Hat, Black Hat and the Emergence of the Gray Hat: The True Costs of Cybercrime report

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about overall report findings

*Conducted by Osterman Research, White Hat, Black Hat and the Emergence of the Gray Hat; The True Costs of Cybercrime uncovers the current state of cybercriminal costs and the motivations of cyber security professionals moving to the dark side. The multicountry study surveyed more than 900 companies across the US, UK, Germany, Australia, and Singapore.