67% of Indian firms to outsource key security functions as cyber attacks spike

New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) About 67 per cent of Indian enterprises are looking at outsourcing key areas of their security landscape to manage security service providers (MSSPs) in the next three years, according to a new IDC report.

However, it is also observed that there is an increasing trend towards consolidating the number of MSSPs the enterprises are partnering with, going forward.

While traversing towards investing in digital transformation initiatives, enterprises in India must also look at outsourcing key functions such as threat detection, security operations, and risk mitigations to external security services providers as a part of their enterprise strategy and also to improve operational efficiencies and bottom-line.

"A lot of enterprises go with security service providers that can offer global capabilities in a local delivery model and can help them in unifying their vendor ecosystem by offering a plethora of services under one umbrella," said Sakshi Grover, research manager, Future of Trust, IDC India and Asia/Pacific.

About 72.5 per cent of the enterprises said they use threat intelligence products or services in their organisation, and 26.5 per cent said that they plan to implement it in the next two years.

Almost 92 per cent of the enterprises said they believe the use of secure access service edge (SASE) will grow as a part of their enterprise's strategy to implement a more agile, pervasive cybersecurity strategy.

"Majority of the enterprises stated that the alarming increase in sophisticated external cyber threats and cybersecurity attacks is one of their greatest challenges in establishing organisational trust today," the findings showed.

"Security must now become a central and vital topic within operations, across the C-suite, and elevated at the board level. The principal challenge Indian enterprises are facing today is the difficulty to tackle increasingly sophisticated external cyber threats and cybersecurity attacks," said Sharath Srinivasamurthy, Associate Vice President, IDC India.