APAC manufacturers could lose $10.7m from cyberattacks

Over half of APAC manufacturing organisations have experienced a cyber breach.

A Frost & Sullivan study commissioned by Microsoft found that a cyberattack can cost a large manufacturing organisation in Asia Pacific (APAC) an average of $10.7m in economic loss with customer churn being the largest economic consequence of a cyber breach, resulting in $8.1m of indirect cost, an announcement revealed. For mid-sized manufacturing organisations, the average economic loss was said to be $38,000.

Cybersecurity incidents have led to job losses across different functions in more than three out of five (63%) manufacturing organisations, the report found.

Whilst the impact of data vulnerabilities and breaches can be costly and damaging to the manufacturing organizations, its supply chain and consumers, the study uncovered that a little over half or 51% of APAC manufacturing organisations had either experienced a security incident or were not sure if they had had a security incident as they had not performed proper forensics or data breach assessment.

The study further revealed that instead of accelerating digital transformation to bolster their cybersecurity strategy to defend against future cyberattacks, almost three in five (59%) manufacturing firms in the region delayed the progress of digital transformation projects due to the fear of cyberattacks.

These findings are part of "Understanding the Cybersecurity Threat Landscape in Asia Pacific: Securing the Modern Enterprise in a Digital World" study launched in May 2018. The initial study, which surveyed a total of 1,300 business and IT decision makers ranging from mid-sized organizations (250 to 499 employees) to large-sized organizations (more than 500 employees), found that the frequency and severity of cyberattacks targeting manufacturing companies have increased significantly in recent years.

The study showed that nearly three in five (57%) manufacturing firms with 26 to 50 cybersecurity solutions took more than a day to recover from cyberattacks. Conversely, only 26% of organisations with less than 10 solutions took more than a day to recover. “In fact, 35% of them managed to recover from a security incident within an hour,” Microsoft added.

Despite the growing sophistication and impact of cyberattacks, the study further revealed that only 26% of manufacturing organisations who had encountered cyberthreats considered a cybersecurity strategy prior to initiating a digital transformation project. The remaining respondents either thought about cybersecurity only after the commencement of their digital transformation projects or did not think about cybersecurity at all.