News

Asia-Pacific region not ready for security compliance

The recent surge in high-profile network breaches has lead to a push for increased cybersecurity regulations and protocols among officials within the United States government. These efforts recently culminated in President Barack Obama's executive order laying out a framework for government agencies and private businesses to share information pertaining to cybersecurity threats.

Nations located within the Asia-Pacific region - an area of the world that has been hit hard by cybercrime in recent years - should be considering similar steps to regulate network defenses and prevent data breaches. SPAMfighter reported that a recent study on the state of global cybersecurity identified Asia-Pacific countries as the most targeted victims of network breaches. China represented the most affected nation worldwide, as nearly 55 percent of its computers have been infected with malware. According to the report, South Korea and Taiwan rounded out the top three, with approximately 54 and 42 percent of the countries' machines being infected, respectively.

ZDNet reported that a similar push to create and enforce cybersecurity regulations would fail to find traction in the Asia-Pacific region. During a discussion on data protection at the Cyber Liability Insights Conference in Singapore, panelists suggested that cybersecurity measures had not become sophisticated enough in the area to properly implement a similar framework or establish guidelines for companies.

One of measures credited with encouraging network defense adoption rates in the U.S. has been the implementation of regulations requiring companies to report security breaches. However, panelists argued that similar initiatives would not be supported in the Asia-Pacific region because businesses would be worried about the potential loss of reputation from disclosing security failures.

Without a clear roadmap for attaining a high level of cybersecurity, Asia-Pacific businesses will continue to fall victim to hackers and data thieves. If companies have no impetus to adopt the latest measures in network security, they may be ignoring critical implementations.

Global cybersecurity measures are still falling behind accepted standards. Protect sensitive in-transit data with an SSL certificate today. 

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