According to a survey mentioned on the website of business school INSEAD, stolen data may appear in shady corners of the internet (the dark web). That was monitored and assessed among publicly listed companies, mainly from Europe and Southeast Asia (Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, the UK, South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia).
Finland is at risk the most
Companies from these countries were evaluated as to what extent hackers are coordinated to attack them, and also how much sensitive information was stolen or illegally disclosed. Sensitive information includes internal emails, confidential matters – business plans and trade secrets, and exposed usernames or passwords to restricted systems.
Surprisingly, it seems that companies in developed European states are more exposed and compromised than those from the developing Asian region. One explanation can be that digital maturity also means higher overall vulnerability, since due to high labor costs, companies try to automate as many processes as possible. So there are more opportunities for stealing data.
Asia is catching up in digital technology
The cyber-exposure of Asian companies will probably rise next year. An advantage will be the deployment of up-to-date technology, whereas in Europe, many companies still use old cyber-vulnerable technology.
So generally speaking, Asia appears to be less prone to fall victim to the serious cyber-security problems which we can observe in Europe.
-jk-