62% of businesses in Asia Pacific and Japan say network segmentation is critical to protect against ransomware attacks

Akamai research finds that while companies in Asia Pacific and Japan are leading the way in segmenting multiple assets, 43% still cite a lack of expertise as a barrier to implementation

November 30, 2023 – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as: Akamai), a cloud service provider responsible for supporting and protecting online life, recently released a report focusing on the growth of ransomware Trends, Zero Trust adoption, and benefits of micro-segmentation. Micro-segmentation is an emerging security practice that can be used to divide a network into segments and enforce granular security policies and controls for individual workloads, applications, and tasks. 

The 2023 State of the Segmentation Report found that surveyed businesses globally experienced an average of 86 ransomware attacks in the past 12 months, a significant increase from an average of 43 attacks per year two years ago. . In response to the recent increase in attacks, security companies have implemented Zero Trust and micro-segmentation strategies. In Asia Pacific and Japan, nearly all (99%) respondents said they have deployed not only some form of segmentation but also the Zero Trust security framework.

The report is based on interviews with 1,200 IT and security decision-makers around the world. Among these respondents, the vast majority believe micro-segmentation is an effective tool for protecting assets, but deployment rates are lower than expected, with only 36% of enterprises in Asia Pacific and Japan successfully applying it in more than two business-critical areas. Segmentation. In Asia Pacific and Japan, 43% of enterprises believe that the top barrier to deploying micro-segmentation is a lack of relevant skills/expertise , the highest proportion of all regions surveyed. The next biggest obstacles are compliance requirements (42%) and the increase in performance bottlenecks (40%). Regardless of their sector, industry or country, nearly all respondents reported the same barriers, albeit to slightly different degrees. 

Despite slow deployments around the world, organizations that adhere to a micro-segmentation strategy in six mission-critical areas report that they recover from an attack in an average of just 4 hours. This is 11 hours faster than an enterprise that only implemented segmentation in one key area, underscoring the benefits of a Zero Trust strategy using micro-segmentation.

Dean Houari, director of security technology and strategy for Asia Pacific and Japan at Akamai, said: "Cybercriminals in Asia Pacific and Japan are always changing their tactics and improving their tools to penetrate enterprises. Whether it is protecting against ransomware, new zero-day vulnerabilities or sophisticated phishing attacks, all businesses in the region need to re-evaluate their risks to protect critical assets. Adopting a Zero Trust architecture and combining Zero Trust network access with micro-segmentation is the only effective strategy to protect against ransomware threats. While many companies in Asia Pacific and Japan are leading the way in implementing such structures, they must also ensure that their employees and partners have the necessary skills to fully realize the benefits of this approach.” 

Other findings of the report include:

● IT security teams and decision-makers in Asia Pacific and the Americas are more likely to view network segmentation as extremely important to secure their organizations, with 62% and 60% respectively, compared with only 60% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 53%.

● Companies in Asia Pacific are more likely to have segmented two or more key business assets at 36%, compared with 29% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 26% in the Americas.

● Businesses in both Asia Pacific and EMEA cited a lack of relevant skills/expertise as the biggest obstacle to implementing segmentation (43% and 38% respectively). Companies in the Americas believe that the biggest obstacle is the increase in performance bottlenecks (41%).

● Among enterprises in the Americas, 49% are more likely to say their Zero Trust deployment is very complete and clear, compared with 35% in Asia Pacific and 33% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

● A whopping 93% of all respondents believe micro-segmentation is critical to stopping ransomware attacks.

● The most common issues businesses face after a ransomware attack include network outage (52%), data loss (46%) and brand/reputation damage (45%).

● In Asia Pacific and Japan, China and Japan reported the highest number of ransomware attacks in the past year, with 83 and 81 respectively.

● When it comes to segmentation, India leads the way with 58% of Indian companies applying segmentation technology in more than two assets/domains, followed by Mexico (48%) and Japan (32%).

method

Akamai teamed up with Vanson Bourne to interview 1,200 IT and security decision-makers in 10 countries to assess how organizations are progressing in protecting their environments, focusing on the role of segmentation technologies.

Respondents answered questions about their IT security approach and segmentation strategy, as well as the threats their organizations may face in 2023. These findings provide insight into how security policies have evolved since 2021, as well as areas where efforts still need to be made to improve.

Security personnel and decision-makers interviewed were from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, India, Japan and Australia. They all come from companies with more than 1,000 employees and operate in a variety of industries and sectors, making the findings more generalizable.