IDC: Asian companies lack business protection measures

An IDC research shows that only 36 percent of businesses across the Asia-Pacific region have disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity strategies in place, making them susceptible to disruptions from security breaches or natural disasters.

According to the research firm, Singapore leads the way in terms of disaster readiness, with 54 percent of respondents having DR measures in place. The island-state is followed by Australia at 52 percent, while China was ranked last at 13 percent.

While 97 percent of respondents with DR measures had tested their strategies at least once a year, only a third carried out the exercise at least once every quarter.

"Security risks are becoming progressively more sophisticated, and further efforts by organizations are required to keep pace with the dangers faced," said Willie Low, market analyst for infrastructure software, IDC Asia-Pacific. "Many organizations have yet to adopt the additional security measures, which they can use to arm themselves against these new threats."

"However, the awareness of the need for these measures is growing, and we expect to see higher adoption rates for enhanced security measures over the next year," Low said.

Storage and archive topped the list of security and continuity measures companies currently have in place, with 81.4 percent of organizations responding positively. Trailing closely behind at 81 percent is security software, which covers antivirus applications and intrusion detection tools.

The IDC findings are in line with the observations of an industry expert that small and midsized businesses are still dragging their feet in insuring themselves against disasters.

An Australian government official earlier this week had also noted that company directors should be deemed "negligent" if they are not doing enough to ensure their IT systems are protected by an adequate DR plan.