Illustrative Image (Source: VNA) Jakarta (VNA) – Cyber-attacks targeted at Indonesian firms in 2017 arelikely to cost them 34 billion USD due to direct financial losses and long-termreputation damage, Jakarta Globe reported.
According to a survey carried out by research consultancy firm Frost &Sullivan under the global technology giant Microsoft, half of Indonesiancompanies may be affected by cyber-attacks last year.
The study found 22 percent of surveyed companies reported they had a securitybreach while 27 percent were unsecure if they had one due to a lack of dataforensics assessments.
Notably, 61 percent of Indonesian enterprises did not think of cyber-securityat all or pay attention to the issue after they were attacked.
Haris Izmee, President of Microsoft Indonesia, stressed that high-profilebreaches will make companies face the risk of financial losses or evenexperience deteriorating reputation.
Experts of Frost & Sullivan noted that a big company, one that has morethan 500 employees, can possibly incur economic losses of 16.3 million USD dueto cyber-attacks. Only 1 million USD of which is likely to be a direct cost tothe company itself. Around 5.7 million USD is predicted to come from indirectcosts, and 9.6 million USD from the induced costs.
More than 90 percent of the cyber-attacks can be prevented through basicpractices such as strong passwords, use of multi-factor authentications forsuspicious log-in attempts or keeping all software up to date.
Statistics from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology showedthat Indonesia saw over 200 million cyber-attacks last year, including theransomware WannaCry that attacked the country’s major hospitals. The attacksleft critical losses to Indonesian companies.-VNA
VNA
