Global networking giant Cisco Systems says security for hybrid work is among its top business priorities in Asean and Thailand as businesses are paying more attention to the issue.
"In the post-pandemic era, hybrid work continues as it empowers people to work from anywhere, but it could create cybersecurity risks as people are connected online from offices, coffee shops, hotels and home. This is different from remote work during the pandemic, when most of the employees worked at home," Bee Kheng Tay, president of Cisco Asean, told the Bangkok Post.
According to a Cisco report entitled "My Location, My Device: Hybrid work's new cybersecurity challenge", 92% of respondents in Thailand say their employees are logging in to work from unregistered devices.
The report surveyed 6,700 security professionals from 27 countries, including 150 in Thailand.
Citing the report, Ms Tay said 68% of respondents say their employees spend more than 10% of the day working from these unregistered devices, and 90% say unregistered devices are likely to cause cybersecurity incidents for their organisations.
Some 91% in Thailand say their employees use at least two networks for logging into work, and 28% use more than five networks.
Among those who suffered from an online incident, 86% said it cost them at least US$100,000, and 50% indicated it cost them at least $500,000.
According to Ms Tay, the use of unregistered devices adds security concerns due to more complexities in the threat landscape.
More than six out of 10 respondents in Thailand said they had experienced a cybersecurity incident over the past 12 months.
The top three types of attacks suffered were malware, denial of service attacks, and data leaks.
To support hybrid work, it was vital to have a supportive human resources policy, employee skills and technological readiness, she said, adding that it represented a growing opportunity for Cisco.
"Our differentiation is that we have security in place in our network as 80% of the global traffic goes through our network," said Ms Tay.
Taveewat Chantaraseno, managing director of Cisco Thailand and Myanmar, said security resilience can be supported by establishing visibility on networks and applications, as well as harnessing threat intelligence to respond against cyber-attacks.
"The integrated security platform, visibility building, monitoring, automated response and fast recovery hold the key to ensuring business continuity," said Mr Taveewat.
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"Agility, resilience and automation are among the critical areas to overcome this challenging time," he said.
Addressing reports of job cuts at Cisco, Ms Tay said the number of employees will stay the same.
"We're not actually reducing the number of employees but restructuring and investing in the priority areas," she said.
Ms Tay said Asean is a growing market with a large population and growing GDP, and Thailand is among the company's top three markets in the region.
"Our priority in Asean aligns with the global realms by transforming the infrastructure, supporting enterprise security, reimaging applications and powering the hybrid world," she said.
As the first female leader of Cisco Asean, Ms Tay said she focuses a lot on people and building a strong team.
"Trust and transparency are very important," she said. "At Cisco, we focus a lot on diversity, not just gender, but everything that brings different opinions, ideas and styles that make us strong. The company supports inclusiveness for all and serves the underserved."
