57% of organizations exposed to risks due to cybersecurity expert shortages

According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Dinh Do Thi, Deputy Head of Division 1 under the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (A05), personal data is currently considered a "new gold mine" by cybercriminals. To protect this digital asset, corporate systems need real gatekeepers. However, organizations are stumbling over a massive internal barrier: the severe scarcity of specialized technical human resources.

Alarming shortage of specialized personnel in Vietnam

Finding and maintaining an on-site security team is becoming a significant burden for many businesses. A recent study by the security firm Kaspersky, conducted on 1,714 technical professionals from large enterprises across 16 countries, revealed a concerning reality: 57% of Vietnamese enterprises are facing a shortage of qualified cybersecurity experts.

This statistic makes Vietnam the country with the highest cybersecurity personnel shortage in the Asia-Pacific region, creating a stark contrast to the 34% shortage recorded in Singapore

Supply chain risks and IT department overload

The absence of cybersecurity experts is the root cause of the severely diminished ability to control third-party risks. Supply chain attacks - where hackers infiltrate a target system through vulnerabilities from partner service or software providers - are currently a top threat.

In the Asia-Pacific region, data shows that the rate of Vietnamese businesses suffering supply chain attacks has reached 34%, alongside 27% being attacked through trusted relationships. These figures reflect Vietnam's risk exposure level as the second highest in the region, trailing only behind China.

Without sufficient manpower, existing security teams are forced to spread their thin resources across too many tasks simultaneously. Up to 48% of enterprise representatives in Vietnam admit that the pressure to balance various cybersecurity priorities has caused them to inadvertently overlook risks emerging from the supply chain. Even more concerning, despite facing numerous threats, the confidence level in current defense measures among organizations in Vietnam reaches 21%, significantly higher than markets like Singapore (14%) or India (11%). This easily leads to subjective complacency in system operation and protection.

Strategic solutions to the defensive personnel puzzle

Faced with complex threats, Adrian Hia, Managing Director for Kaspersky Asia-Pacific, recommends that organizations treat supply chain security management with the same strict discipline as internal operations.

Based on research findings, experts suggest that businesses must carefully evaluate suppliers, invest in training for current staff, establish strict security clauses in contracts, and tighten security cooperation with partners.

In particular, the most practical and central solution when an organization cannot hire enough experts is to utilize outsourced cybersecurity services. This is exactly where specific solutions from professional service providers like ipsip.vn perfectly solve the "pain point" of manpower shortages:

• Instead of struggling to compete in recruitment and paying massive salaries to build an in-house team, businesses can use the 24/7 SOC (Security Operations Center) service to ensure the system is continuously monitored, detecting anomalies from the supply chain early.

• To minimize the omission of risks due to IT overload, authorizing a third party to perform periodic Vulnerability Scans or PENTESTs helps organizations proactively identify and patch partner software flaws before hackers can exploit them.

• For smaller-scale entities, cybersecurity solutions for SMEs optimize costs while still inheriting expert-level defense capabilities, completely filling the void left by the lack of internal personnel.

The shortage of cybersecurity experts directly pushes businesses into a vulnerable position against increasingly sophisticated supply chain risks. By establishing rigorous partner evaluation standards and boldly shifting to a professional outsourced security service model, every organization can solidly reinforce its resilience and ensure the absolute safety of its critical data.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

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References:

• Article: "Over 50% of Vietnamese enterprises lack cybersecurity experts" - Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper.

• Article: "More than half of Vietnamese enterprises lack cybersecurity experts" - VietNamNet.

• Article: "More than half of Vietnamese enterprises lack cybersecurity experts" - Thanh Hoa Radio and Television.