APAC may see increased security spends by 2020

UK: Asia-Pacific is home to a large number of nations that are politically divided, culturally divergent, and economically varied, resulting in an explosive cyber cocktail, as a new report insinuates.

Active campaigns in cyberespionage and cyberwarfare plague nation states and private sector organizations in the region. Digitally advanced industries and emerging knowledge economies are lucrative targets for hostile cyber threat actors, fueled by political ideals or financial gain, it adds.

This volatile cyber context is driving increased efforts to protect national infrastructure, and elevate cybersecurity engagement in the country. Spending on critical infrastructure security is set to hit $22 billion by 2020 in the region. This volatile cyber context not only affects highly-engaged cyber states such as Japan, China and South Korea but also Southeast Asian nations as well, with Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand working hard to organize and advance internal cybersecurity policies. Emerging economies such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and India are lagging behind such organizational structures, despite fast-growing digital markets, and are becoming lucrative targets for cybercrime.

This flurry of cyberthreat activity and the disparate levels of cybersecurity preparedness among the various states offers a large opportunity for cybersecurity investment over the next 5 years. Japan, China, and South Korea will see spending on critical infrastructure security hit the billion dollar mark nationally over the forecasted period. “The market for cybersecurity services is highly varied. Domestic vendors will feature highly in Northeast Asian markets such as Japan, South Korea, and China. However, there is significant opportunity for foreign security vendors to penetrate in Southeast Asian markets, notably Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and India,” says Michela Menting, Practice Director for the Digital Security.

The ABI Research report on National Cybersecurity Development: Asia-Pacific will take a look at the cyberthreat landscape in the region, and also looks at the local vendor ecosystem, including players such as AhnLab, Digify, Hitachi Data Systems, Huawei Technologies, NEC, Nexusguard, TrendMicro, and V-Key.