Asia Pacific Businesses Identify Zero Trust as Key to Addressing Increasing Cyber Attacks and Flexible Workforces

New Cloudflare study reveals the latest security trends in the region, including 54% of companies experienced more cyber attacks in 2021 vs. 2020

SINGAPORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today released new findings on security practices across Asia Pacific, revealing how organizations are coping with increased cyberattacks and flexible workforces. The survey solidified that across the region attacks are up, and organizations are looking for new ways to secure their workforce—turning to Zero Trust security models.

Organizations Couldn’t Rely on Outdated Security Procedures as Cyberattacks Increased

According to the study, which was conducted across 1,000 IT and cybersecurity decision-makers and influencers across Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore, more than half (54%) of organizations in Asia Pacific have experienced more security incidents in 2021 than in the previous year. And with attacks on the rise, 83% of respondents said they had to make changes to their IT security procedures.

Securing Flexible Workforces Keeps IT Leaders Awake at Night

The study also found that the pandemic left organizations unprepared to cope with the challenges of remote working and added security risks. According to the survey, 44% of the respondents said the pandemic has had a significant impact on how their organization approached IT security, and 77% shared IT security as one of the main areas “keeping them awake at night.”

As businesses navigate their way through a post-pandemic world, 88% of respondents said their organization will be implementing a flexible workforce—a combination of return-to-office and work from home, with 85% saying their workforce will be more mobile in the future, a move now likely to forever change our way of working. This hybrid work model requires a security strategy that can maximize productivity regardless of location, without compromising IT networks and infrastructure.

Organizations are Turning to Zero Trust Security Models to Secure their Workforces

The study further reveals that a majority—86% of organizations—are aware of Zero Trust, and 66% of respondents indicated they have implemented a Zero Trust strategy. Of those that have yet to implement Zero Trust, 58% said they will be implementing a Zero Trust strategy in the next 12 months.

However, businesses face a number of challenges when it comes to incorporating Zero Trust in their IT security strategy, with 67% of respondents stating that the biggest risk to their ability to execute is the lack of internal IT security experts. Likewise, educating internal stakeholders to obtain buy-in, and allocating the appropriate level of financial resources are also key to implementing Zero Trust.

Zero Trust Security for the Modern Enterprise

Companies have traditionally used a castle-and-moat approach to security, creating a barrier between the enterprise network and external threats. Now that applications have moved to the cloud, and more employees have moved outside of the office, that model is broken. Today’s new landscape requires a Zero Trust approach, where organizations do not automatically trust any requests to corporate data or resources, and instead, verify every attempt to connect to corporate systems before allowing them access. A Zero Trust architecture trusts no one and nothing.

“Companies are moving towards a hybrid way of working and the only way to secure today’s work-from-anywhere economy is to secure each individual employee. That means protecting their individual networks, devices, and access to business-critical applications. Cloudflare knows the importance of being able to give organizations of any size the power to solve their security and networking needs seamlessly, no matter how their business needs or work environments shift,” said Jonathon Dixon, Vice-President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Japan and China of Cloudflare.

In October 2020, Cloudflare launched Cloudflare One, a Zero Trust, network-as-a-service (NaaS) solution for enterprises that securely connects remote users, offices, and data centers to each other and the resources they need. This unified solution enables fast and safe connections to workplace applications, allows teams to use an app without exposing it to the public Internet, makes personal devices safe for business use, and works in any environment with any cloud provider. Cloudflare’s Zero Trust solution sits in its global network, which spans 250 cities in more than 100 countries, including 84 cities across Asia Pacific, Japan, and China.

Today some of Asia Pacific’s most sophisticated organizations turn to Cloudflare for their Zero Trust security needs, including Canva and Kathmandu. “As we embrace a hybrid way of working, enabling remote collaboration at scale is a priority. Implementing a Zero Trust strategy allows us to focus on adding value to our platform, growing the team and expanding into new markets with confidence,” said Jim Tyrrell, Head of Infrastructure at Canva.

To find out more about the APAC Zero Trust survey, please check out resources below:

• Whitepaper download
• Cloudflare Blog: Zero Trust — Not a Buzzword

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted by The Leading Edge, on behalf of Cloudflare. A total of 1,006 IT and cyber security decision-makers and influencers of organizations with 500+ employees, in financial services, healthcare, public sector, technology and e-commerce sectors in Australia, Japan, Singapore, India and Malaysia (n=200 to 203 per country) were surveyed online and recruited via general business panels. The survey looked at the impact of the pandemic on businesses, current IT security challenges, as well as awareness, adoption and implementation of Zero Trust, and was conducted in August 2021.

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. (www.cloudflare.com / @cloudflare) is on a mission to help build a better Internet. Cloudflare’s suite of products protect and accelerate any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures 2018 list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2019. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Cloudflare has offices in Austin, TX, Champaign, IL, New York, NY, San Jose, CA, Seattle, WA, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Lisbon, London, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our plans and objectives for Cloudflare One and our other products and technology, the benefits to customers from using Cloudflare One and our other products and technology, the expected functionality and performance of Cloudflare One, and our other products and technology, our technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by our CEO and others. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our Annual Report on Form 10-Q filed on August 6, 2021, as well as other filings that we may make from time to time with the SEC.

The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

© 2021 Cloudflare, Inc. All rights reserved. Cloudflare, the Cloudflare logo, and other Cloudflare marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Cloudflare, Inc. in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts

Daniella Vallurupalli

press@cloudflare.com