The growth of remote working across Australia in recent years has made cybersecurity increasingly important to Australian enterprises, according to a new research report published by Information Services Group, a global technology research and advisory company.
What were the findings of ISG?
The 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Cybersecurity — Solutions and Services research report for Australia finds that demand for cybersecurity products and services has risen with home-based and hybrid work and companies’ increasing need to engage with customers online.
Along with digital transformation and cloud migration, these trends have heightened concerns about vulnerabilities and changed how organizations procure cybersecurity services.
Cloud security and identity and access management critical to growth
The Australian data security market will grow significantly in the next five years, with cloud security and identity and access management (IAM) growing fastest, ISG says. This trend will intensify the country’s need for skilled security professionals. To securely allow remote work, Australian companies are adopting technologies that include IAM, endpoint protection, secure access service edge (SASE) and secure web gateways and firewalls, the report says.
Identity and access management (IAM) has become one of the most important technology investments for many organizations, also helping them streamline processes, cut costs and improve customer experiences as they update delivery models to reach more clients online.
Stricter laws helping Aussie enterprises
Stricter Australian privacy laws are making mature data loss/prevention (DLP) tech and practices more vital to the country’s enterprises, ISG says. In 2018, the Australian Privacy Act was strengthened, especially by the addition of the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, which requires firms to inform individuals if a data breach is likely to cause serious harm.
Cybersecurity is also becoming a major factor in corporate governance, risk and compliance practices in Australia as firms see the rising risks of security breaches, the report says.
Service providers rated
The report also examines other trends in Australia, like the evolution of managed security services, increasing use of AI and the federal govt’s growing investment in cybersecurity.
The 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Cybersecurity — Solutions and Services research report for Australia evaluates the capabilities of 80 providers across six quadrants such as: Identity and Access Management (IAM); Data Leakage / Loss Prevention (DLP) and Data Security; Advanced Endpoint Threat Protection, Detection and Response (Advanced ETPDR); Technical Security Services; Strategic Security Services, and Managed Security Services.
The report names IBM as a Leader in five quadrants. It names Accenture, CyberCX, Deloitte, DXC Technology, Fujitsu, Microsoft, NTT, Telstra, Tesserent, Verizon and Wipro as Leaders in three quadrants each. Broadcom, Kasada and VMware Carbon Black in two quadrants each.
Bitdefender, Capgemini, CGI, CrowdStrike, CyberArk, EY, Forcepoint, Infosys, KPMG, Okta, Ping Identity, PwC, RSA, SailPoint, Tech Mahindra, Trellix and Unisys in one quadrant each.
In addition, HCL is named as a Rising Star — a company with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition — in two quadrants. Check Point, LastPass, Macquarie Telecom Group and Netskope are named as Rising Stars in one quadrant each.
What were the executives’ thoughts on the findings?
“Cybersecurity is moving up the agenda in Australian enterprises, and senior management is increasingly involved in cybersecurity decision-making. Most firms are looking for simple but flexible solutions,” said Joyce Harkness, director, ISG Cybersecurity, for ANZ and APAC.
“Aussie firms are starting to understand the risks of cybercrime for both their finances and their reputations. Many of them are appointing data security and compliance officers to help reduce those risks,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research.
A customized version of the report is available from CyberCX. The 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Cybersecurity — Solutions and Services report for Australia is available to subscribers here.
