Believing they won’t encounter cybersecurity incidents, small and midsize companies (SMBs) don’t see a necessity for cyber insurance coverage. 

Amongst 39% of SMBs in Singapore that aren’t contemplating or stay undecided about getting safety in opposition to cyber dangers, half say it’s as a result of they’re unlikely to expertise cybersecurity or cybercrime points. One other 54% say they don’t retailer delicate or private knowledge on-line and, therefore, don’t see a necessity for cyber insurance coverage. 

These findings have been from a examine commissioned by insurer QBE Insurance coverage Group in Singapore and carried out by Artistic Manner Consultants, which polled 416 decision-makers from native SMBs. The annual survey was carried out final quarter. 

Amid the obvious lack of enthusiasm for cyber insurance coverage, although, 97% mentioned they have been conscious of potential cyber dangers to their enterprise. Some 21% expressed issues about knowledge safety and safety, with 38% admitting to being affected by cyber incidents final yr, up from 26% in 2021. 

About 9% of respondents mentioned they operated with none course of or insurance coverage in opposition to cyber dangers, the examine discovered. 

Digital transformation, although, remained of nice curiosity, with 66% of SMBs embarking on digitalisation efforts over the previous yr. One other 34% mentioned they might proceed to spend money on digital applied sciences to achieve extra prospects, whereas 32% would achieve this to develop their enterprise and 32% would digitalise for larger productiveness. 

With their smaller pockets, it ought to come as no shock that 29% of SMBs cited excessive value of funding as a barrier of their digitalisation efforts. Some 27% pointed to a scarcity of financing, whereas 24% pointed to a lack of digital abilities as a barrier. An extra 23% noticed potential enterprise disruptions as a barrier, whereas 21% highlighted complexities in digital applied sciences. 

One other 21% noticed the necessity to guarantee knowledge safety and safety as a barrier to digital transformation. 

SMBs are scorching targets of cybercrimes in Singapore, the place these companies account for the majority of victims impacted by ransomware assaults. Particularly, SMBs from sectors resembling manufacturing and IT accounted for the majority of reported ransomware instances in 2021. 

Based on a examine final yr by Coleman Parkes, Singapore enterprises needed to take care of 54 cybersecurity incidents on common every day, with 39% managing 50 to 200 such incidents a day. Some 62% mentioned they have been struggling to maintain up with the evolving menace panorama. 

A report from Development Micro final week estimated that Asia-Pacific skilled essentially the most ransomware assaults final yr, with 38.06% of such assaults focused on the area. Some 18.9% of ransomware victims in Asia-Pacific selected to pay up, in comparison with the worldwide common of 10% and 11.1% in Europe, which had the bottom ransomware cost price. 

Of 14 billion threats it blocked in Asia final yr, Development Micro mentioned greater than 1 billion have been in Singapore alone. Cellular safety points ranked the very best in Asia. 

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