Cybercrime poses biggest risk to businesses in India

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Risks from cybercrime are rising in India, and are seen as the biggest threat by businesses operating in the country. These are the findings of a survey conducted by tax and financial consultancy Ernst & Young (EY) among 665 respondents in 17 countries. Forty of the respondents were from India.

The India findings showed that 75 percent of those polled agreed to using data analysis tools to investigate bribery and corruption risks; 65 percent said yes to using such tools to tackle cyber breaches. They were interested in both early detection of fraud and increasing transparency in business operations.

The survey, conducted between June and September 2015, found that “organisational reluctance to invest significantly in forensic data analysis is partly due to lack of management buy-in around its potential return on investment,” Arpinder Singh, a partner in EY India, said. However, “companies need to proactively intertwine it within their anti-fraud programs”, Singh said.

About 55 percent of the respondents said their forensic data analysis spending was sufficient, a drop from 64 percent in 2014. Three out of five say they plan to spend more in the next two years. In India, 66 percent of respondents are spending at least half their forensic data analysis budget proactively, compared with 63 percent at the global level. Overall, the use of such tools is becoming more mainstream, the report said.