The cybersecurity landscape in Singapore and Malaysia is quickly evolving as growing risk awareness changes the way enterprises make security decisions and purchases, according to a new research report published by Information Services Group a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
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“Companies are racing to achieve higher visibility and continuous monitoring.”
The 2023 ISG Provider Lens Cybersecurity — Solutions and Services report for Singapore and Malaysia finds that increasing cloud migration and remote work following the COVID-19 pandemic have expanded possible avenues for attack, while the regulations mandating security protection in both countries grow tighter. These trends have heightened the importance of cybersecurity strategy at many organizations, leading even top management to become better informed and more involved in decision-making.
“Cybersecurity is a growing challenge for organizations in Singapore and Malaysia as the number of sophisticated attacks increases and the attack surface expands to include the supply chain ecosystem,” said Joyce Harkness, director, ISG Cybersecurity, for ANZ and Asia Pacific. “Companies are racing to achieve higher visibility and continuous monitoring.”
Phishing has become by far the most common vector for attacks in Singapore and Malaysia, partly due to the rise in digital customer engagement since the pandemic, ISG says. Attackers often impersonate banks, health authorities, telecommunications providers and delivery companies through email, voice, SMS and even replica websites. Because these attacks exploit human behavior to gain access to sensitive data, they can be very hard to defend against.
Traditional enterprise security approaches based on protecting a defined perimeter are evolving toward strategies that take into account all possible points of entry across a company’s supply chain, the report says. To defend against a wider range of threats, more companies in the region are adopting zero-trust frameworks, security service edge (SSE) and more sophisticated identity and access management (IAM). Demand for integrated solutions, including extended detection and response (XDR), is increasing as more employees in the region work remotely from insecure networks.
As they increase their investments in cybersecurity, many organizations in Singapore and Malaysia want help orchestrating and consolidating their spending, ISG says. This may include rationalizing technologies, outsourcing non-core functions and bringing spending in line with their risk profiles.
Asian enterprises increasingly seek cloud-based, end-to-end security solutions with less complex purchase options and pricing based on operational expenditures, ISG says. In response, providers are packaging expanding sets of offerings as platforms.
“The market is consolidating around platforms,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “Many of the most successful vendors now are those that seek to be the primary solutions provider.”
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The report also explores other cybersecurity trends in Singapore and Malaysia, including widespread security staff shortages in enterprises and the growing adoption of managed security services.
The 2023 ISG Provider Lens™ Cybersecurity — Solutions and Services report for Singapore and Malaysia evaluates the capabilities of 82 providers across six quadrants: Identity and Access Management (IAM), Extended Detection and Response (XDR), Security Service Edge (SSE), Technical Security Services, Strategic Security Services and Managed Security Services – SOC.
The report names IBM as a Leader in four quadrants and Accenture, Deloitte and Verizon Business as Leaders in three quadrants each. It names Ensign, EY, Fujitsu, LGMS, Microsoft, NCS, TM One and Wipro as Leaders in two quadrants each. Bitdefender, Broadcom, Cato Networks, Celcom Axiata, Cisco, CrowdStrike, CyberArk, DXC Technology, Forcepoint, KPMG, Netskope, NTT DATA, Okta, Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, Ping Identity, PwC, Rapid7, SailPoint, Singtel, Tech Mahindra, Versa Networks, VMware and Zscaler are named as Leaders in one quadrant each.
In addition, Kyndryl is named as a Rising Star — a company with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition — in two quadrants. BeyondTrust, HCLTech, HPE (Aruba) and SentinelOne are named as Rising Stars in one quadrant each.
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