1 in 2 Hong Kong firms believe their IT security strategies are effective

Companies have become aggressive and protecting data.

In its latest global study, CA Technologies has revealed that Hong Kong companies are seeing a successful security strategy as a key enabler to drive business growth and to enter new markets.

The study, The Security Imperative: Driving Business Growth in the App Economy conducted by Coleman Parkes, polled 1,770 senior business and IT executives, of which more than 100 are chief security officers (CSO) and chief information security officers (CISO). 799 of the respondents were from countries within the Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) region including Hong Kong.

The study supports the fact that IT security, specifically identity-centric security, needs to do more than protect the business in today’s environment – it needs to help build trusted digital relationships that are critical for competing in the application economy.

Notably, APJ’s most advanced users of identity-centric security reported a decline in breaches as a result of being much more proactive in preventing them through increased investment (86 percent), focusing on mobile devices and apps (82 percent), implementing strong set-up authentication (73 percent) and focusing on high-risk areas like privileged identities and access (68 percent).

83 percent of Hong Kong firms responded to the Survey said that they have implemented new security specifically for mobile devices and apps leading to decrease IT security breaches.

80 percent of Hong Kong respondents agreed that identity-centric security is critical to the business since their employees, customers and partners need secure access no matter where they are or what device they're using.

76 percent said that security is critical to protecting the brand and is an effective competitive differentiator

On the other front, there is also a high level of awareness of IT security among Hong Kong firms, which leads to business improvements.

50 percent of Hong Kong surveyed firms are confident that their IT security strategies are effectively differentiating them from competition.

Hong Kong respondents say their IT security efforts have improved new revenue growth by 42 percent

Hong Kong surveyed firms reported a 38 percent reduction in compliance audit failure. 26 percent of surveyed Hong Kong firms reported they have adopted proactive or predictive processes to detect the risk of data breaches before they occur.