73% of Organizations Failed to Report Cyber Attacks: DSCI Survey Highlights Rising Cybersecurity Threats in India
The DSCI's 2024 survey reveals that 73% of Indian organisations failed to report cyber-attacks. With 17% experiencing cyber-attacks, businesses face increasing risks from social engineering, ransomware, AI-driven threats, and inadequate cybersecurity measures.
In a shocking revelation, the latest cybersecurity preparedness survey by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) has revealed that 73% of organisations failed to report cyber attacks. The findings, based on responses from 204 organisations across various sectors, underscore the growing concerns around cybersecurity maturity and preparedness in India.
The survey, designed to measure the state of cybersecurity across different industries, showed that nearly 17% of organizations reported facing at least one cyber attack in 2024. Among these, a few businesses reported more frequent attacks, with 19 reporting more than one attack per week and five reporting daily attacks. This again shows how sophisticated cyber attacks are getting, especially when artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-driven attacks are being used more frequently.
The most significant concern arising from the survey is the alarming failure of organizations to report cyber-attacks. About 73% of establishments did not report attacks, indicating that many incidents go unnoticed or unaddressed. Social engineering, which exploits human psychology to gain access to sensitive information, continues to be the most common type of attack, followed by persistent threats such as malware, ransomware, and zero-day attacks. Such attacks can have serious repercussions for organizations, like huge data loss and financial disconnections as well as operational halts.
Around 40% of the organization reported serious consequences from cyber attacks. More than that, 13% saw business disruption, 6% financial loss and 19% had severe instances of data breaches. Half of the organizations interviewed here did not have an optimal backup strategy, and as many as 19 percent of those who did not were never tested. This means enormous financial and operational risks in the presence of a cyber attack.
With the complexity of cyber threats increasing, businesses have to focus on cybersecurity preparedness. It is more important in 2024 than ever that data protection measures are in place and the business has an effective incident response strategy. This DSCI survey is the wake-up call for the organisations to strengthen their cybersecurity defence and reporting practices to ward off future risks.