Decoding the cybersecurity divide: Why only 9% of Vietnamese enterprises achieve resilient defense?
While Vietnam’s average cybersecurity index sits slightly above the global baseline, day-to-day operational realities reveal a starkly different picture: the majority of organizations continue to struggle against increasingly sophisticated digital threats.
Cisco’s Relentless Defense 2026 report, surveyed across 8,000 security professionals in 30 markets, highlights a notable gap: Vietnam scored 65/100 in cybersecurity readiness (surpassing the global benchmark of 64/100), yet a mere 9% of domestic organizations qualify as "Relentless Defenders" - the elite tier capable of delivering comprehensive defense, rapid incident response, and seamless resolution of operational friction.
The biggest hurdle: When security fails to speak the language of business
Survey findings reveal that the primary bottleneck holding organizations back is not pure technical capability, but rather a lack of alignment across internal workflows.
Vietnam demonstrates a major bright spot: 80% of organizations have established shared data and tooling between IT and security teams - nearly double the global rate of 41%. However, translating security realities to the executive boardroom still encounters substantial friction:
51% of organizations struggle to translate technical cybersecurity metrics into concrete business impact to support executive decision-making.
35% report that security reporting is overly technical, jargon-heavy, and lacks clear, consistent performance benchmarks.
45% of security professionals waste critical time consolidating and reconciling data across disparate, siloed systems, rather than actively hunting and mitigating real-world threats.
Nguyen Nhu Dung, Managing Director of Cisco Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, emphasized that as cyberattacks become increasingly automated and AI-driven, operational agility - rather than technology alone - serves as the decisive factor governing response speed. Security must therefore be integrated seamlessly into everyday business workflows, rather than treated merely as a tick-box compliance mandate.
The paradox of Artificial Intelligence adoption
While the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) brings significant operational upside, AI adoption across Vietnamese enterprises continues to face critical bottlenecks:
Over 80% of professionals acknowledge that AI improves cyber risk detection capabilities by at least 25%.
Nearly half of Vietnamese organizations have integrated AI-powered security solutions into their environments.
Nearly 30% have begun piloting AI agents - autonomous programs capable of executing decisions without human intervention - within their operational workflows.
Nonetheless, AI adoption drops to its lowest levels in two crucial phases: root-cause investigation and remediation - precisely the most resource-intensive workflows where AI could provide immediate relief. Concerns surrounding data leakage risks, regulatory hurdles, and governance capabilities remain persistent roadblocks. Notably, only 50% of organizations in Vietnam feel confident in their ability to promptly detect and respond should their own AI ecosystem be compromised.
What sets the top 9% apart
The divide between the 9% of "Relentless Defenders" and the rest does not stem from massive budgets spent on tool sprawl; rather, it lies in a mindset focused on building a lean, unified operational engine:
Unified visibility: 83% of resilient organizations share a common toolset and synchronized visibility across infrastructure, networking, and security domains, compared to just 37% among the rest of the market.
Robust non-human identity management: 86% of the leading tier enforce strict, consistent governance over AI agents and non-human identities (service accounts, machine workloads, and automated processes operating without direct human intervention).
Technological mastery and confidence: 77% of these organizations are fully confident in handling an attack targeting their AI infrastructure, and 25% state that AI has accelerated their threat detection speed by more than 100%.
By dismantling operational silos and unifying data architectures, 71% of organizations in the resilient group report a significant reduction in security incidents following budget allocation - nearly double the market average of 39%. This clearly demonstrates that cybersecurity investments deliver sustainable ROI only when paired with a lean operating model that tightly aligns technology, people, and business objectives.
Reference: Vietnamnet
