Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most economically dynamic regions, but there is a large and potentially disastrous flaw in the business model of many companies in the region. In 2017, ASEAN member states collectively spent US$1.9 billion or 0.06 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on cybersecurity, less than half of the global average of 0.13 percent.
As technology develops at light speed and hackers get more sophisticated and unpredictable, this lack of preparedness for cyberattacks may cost organisations in ASEAN dear. The risks include cyberattacks leading to business interruptions that organisations – in particular traditional brick-and-mortar businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – may find crippling.
A Cyber Risk Management (CyRiM) project led by the Insurance Risk and Finance Research Centre at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU-IRFRC) in collaboration with industry partners (including Lloyd’s and Beazley) and academic experts earlier this year studied a hypothetical email ransomware attack across the world and forecast that Asia could lose US$19 billion. Apart from ransom payments, other costs would…
