Cybersecurity in ASEAN An Urgent Call to Action

Cybersecurity in ASEAN: An Urgent Call to Action

cybersecurity training programs for ASEAN. Efforts are currently under way across other markets,

largely driven by the private sector and with a focus on addressing short-term skills gaps.

Earlier this year, Singapore announced plans to set up a new cyber defense vocation that will

create a force of approximately 2,600 cyber defenders, consisting of mostly civilians but also

leveraging National Service personnel. The vocation will fall under the Singapore Armed Forces,

adding military support to the capacity-building efforts.

Building capacity is a long-term effort. With the majority of ASEAN member states lacking a

structured and long-term approach to developing competent cybersecurity professionals,

the emerging member states must rapidly adopt best practices from countries that have

implemented capacity-building frameworks.

Companies across the region are also looking at other avenues to address the challenge. Select

corporations in the telecom, manufacturing, and oil and gas industries have been considering

strategic moves into the cybersecurity domain, either organically or through acquisitions. These

companies have been actively scouting for innovative cybersecurity companies to strengthen

their in-house capabilities. Because of the experience built over the years, cybersecurity is seen as

part of a wider growth agenda, potentially driving new revenue streams while securing critical

infrastructure. Efficiency can be gained by placing inexperienced personnel in event and incident

management and leaving experienced, highly trained cyber personnel focused on the system use

case engineering, tuning, and review.

1.4Perception that cyber risk is an IT risk results in the absence of

a holistic approach to cyber resilience

Corporate stakeholders often have a myopic view of cyber risk, seeing it as an IT issue and not a

business risk. As a result, technology investment is perceived as the key to mitigating cyber risk.

Systems architecture, people, processes, and organizational culture are the greatest assets

organizations can employ to shrink the attack surface. Many organizations either underestimate

Source: A.T. Kearney analysis

Figure

State of global cybersecurity talent

Companies that

take more than

six months to ind

quali ied security

candidates

Rate of cybersecurity

job growth

vs IT jobs overall,

–

million

Global shortage

of cybersecurity

professionals

Organizations that

believe % or fewer

applicants for

open security jobs

are quali ied