One in five UAE businesses report insufficient budgeting for cybersecurity

One in five UAE businesses report insufficient budgeting for cybersecurity

Published: Tue 2 Jan 2024, 7:30 PM Last updated: Tue 2 Jan 2024, 7:31 PM

Twenty per cent of companies in the UAE have admitted that they do not have the budget for adequate cybersecurity measures, a new report has found.

Fifteen per cent of companies in the UAE have experienced cyber incidents due to insufficient cybersecurity investment in the last two years, according to a recent study by Kaspersky. Alarmingly, critical infrastructure, oil and gas and energy organisations in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa region suffered the biggest number of cyber incidents due to improper budget allocation (60 per cent).

Kaspersky conducted a study to discover the opinions of IT Security professionals working for SMEs and enterprises worldwide regarding the human impact on the cybersecurity in a company. The research – aimed at gathering information on various groups of people who influence cybersecurity – considered both internal staff, and external contractors. It also analysed the impact decision makers have on cybersecurity in terms of budget allocation.

The situation is different for every industry. For example, critical infrastructure, energy and oil and gas organisations in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region suffered the greatest number of cyber breaches because of the