In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, IT major Wipro has stated that while there is an increase in the number of connected devices and transition to the cloud, there are also rising incidents of cyber security breaches which could pose a serious risk to business affecting financial prospects of companies. Such attacks could also lead to financial obligations for its customers it added.
Number of records stolen by cyber attacks across globe grew by 53.6% in 2016 as against 2015. "56 per cent of breaches reported had passwords as the types of data stolen, implying that further damage could be perpetrated using the stolen data," said the State of Cybersecurity Report, 2017 which was released by Wipro on Thursday.
The report also added that the attempts for unauthorised access, malware, fraud, misuse/loss/tampering of personal and business data, deliberate or accidental act of its employees or other stakeholders are also on the rise.
The firm’s statement comes weeks after one of the most widespread cyber attacks in history, 'WannaCry' ransomware infected computers running on older versions of Microsoft operating system like XP, across sectors like telecommunications and healthcare in over 100 countries, including India, Russia and the UK, which locked access to files on the computer.
WannaCry raised grave concerns about cybersecurity. Hackers demanded bitcoin payments from companies to retrieve their data.
Wipro too, received attack threats during the incident along with several other IT companies.
Wipro said in a statement said the report is a result of interviewing the chief information security officer (CISO) teams of 139 organisations across various sectors and 11 countries in North America, Europe, APAC, West Aisa and South Asia. It evaluated trends in current security practices and analysed thousands of attempted security attacks and incidents captured in Wipro's Cyber Defence Centres during 2016. Another level of research was conducted to understand the "impending disruptions in the cybersecurity domain".
In the past, the Bengaluru-based firm has acknowledged the growing cyber threat in its annual reports, but had not listed it as a risk factor.
