Companies in the Asia-Pacific are the world’s most poorly-protected against cyber attacks, according to a study by US security company Mandiant.
The report revealed that the median time between a breach and its discovery was 520 days, which is more than three times the global average of 146 days. It also noted that the region was 80 per cent more likely to be targeted than other parts of the world, and that an average of 3.7GB of data is stolen in each attack.
As part of the study, Mandiant hacked into an organisation’s network (with permission) to test its security. The group gained entrance to the network within three days, said Grady Summers, chief technology officer of Mandiant’s parent company, FireEye.
“If an expert group of hackers can do the same in three days, imagine what they can do in 520 days,” he said in a comment to the BBC.
According to Mandiant, many of the cyber attacks that occur in the Asia-Pacific region are not disclosed to the public due to a lack effective breach laws on the part of governments and industry-governing bodies.
The BBC noted that hackers could take over important infrastructure such as power stations (as occurred in Ukraine last year), or transport systems in smart cities.
Notwithstanding, there are reports that China is going to great measures to improve its cybersecurity. These measures involve establishing strict cybersecurity standards for foreign technology companies in relation to government security checks and data storage. However, U.S trade groups have accused China of using “cybersecurity” as an excuse to favour domestic technology companies, with many Western companies already finding it difficult to sell to China since the cybersecurity movement began a few years ago.