Singapore firms’ investment in IT security pays off

By Digital News Asia December 22, 2016

Firms see business growth, competitive edge enabled by IT security investments
Improvements seen across multiple business KPIs with fewer data breaches

Singapore firms’ investment in IT security pays off

A GLOBAL study by CA Technologies has revealed that firms in Singapore are reaping business benefits from investing in IT security.

Improvements have been reported in customer experience, as well as in business growth and customer satisfaction.

The global study, The Security Imperative: Driving Business Growth in the App Economy, polled 1,770 senior business and IT executives, including more than 100 chief security officers and chief information security officers.

Around 800 respondents were from countries in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), including Singapore. Respondents were polled about their attitudes towards IT security practices, and the impact they see it having on their business.

The majority of survey respondents in Singapore felt that IT security, specifically identity-centric security, needs to do more than just protect the business in today’s environment. It needs to help build trusted digital relationships that are critical for competing in the application economy and growing the business.

Ninety-two percent of respondents said there was a need to balance strong security with enabling their business to enter new markets and deliver services in new ways.
Eighty-eight percent said that security was critical to protecting the brand and can be viewed as a competitive differentiator.
Eighty-seven percent said that security needs to be frictionless and not overburden the user.
Eighty-five percent said identity-centric security was critical to enabling secure access for employees, customers and partners wherever they were, and what device they used.

More than 70% of respondents were using metrics such as number of compliance audit failures, number of breaches, operational or process efficiency, and digital reach.

Investing in IT security has paid off for firms in Singapore, which have seen improvement across 11 key performance indicators (KPIs) for business since implementation.

Singapore firms’ investment in IT security pays off

The survey also found that almost three quarters of firms (74%) in Singapore are guarding against IT security breaches by implementing strong, step-up authentication, followed by increasing investment in security to avoid breaches (63%), and changing their organisation to better align responsibility for security (58%).

“In today’s application economy, it’s important for businesses to view security as a business enabler that drives value and new revenue streams rather than just as a form of control,” said Nick Lim, vice president, Asean and Greater China, CA Technologies.

“We are seeing encouraging signs that Singapore companies’ understanding of security is maturing as consumers are becoming more aware and have greater expectations of how their information is handled. Security lays the foundation for trusted relationships and is integral to successful digital transformation.”

About the research/Coleman Parkes

Conducted by Coleman Parkes, the study included 1,770 senior business and IT executives, including more than 100 CSOs and CISOs, from large enterprises across 21 countries and 10 industry sectors.

A total of 799 respondents were from APJ; this covered Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The study and data analysis was done from May – September 2016.