TechTouch Asia

The average ransom payment has increased 500% in the last year, according to Sophos, a global provider of security solutions that defeat cyberattacks. In its annual State of Ransomware 2024 survey report, the company said that organisations in Singapore that paid the ransom reported an average payment of US$1,584,130, with a global average of US$3,960,917. However, Sophos has pointed out that ransoms are just one part of the cost of a cyberattack. Excluding ransoms, the survey found the average cost of recovery reached US$2.20 M, a decrease of more than US$1 million compared to the US$3.46 M that Sophos reported in 2023. Despite the soaring ransoms, this year’s survey indicates a slight reduction in the rate of ransomware attacks with 64% of Singaporean organisations being hit, compared with 84% in 2023. While the propensity to be hit by ransomware increases with revenue, even the smallest organisations (under US$10 M in revenue) are still regularly targeted, with just under half (...

ServiceNow, the AI platform for business transformation, has partnered with IBM to accelerate the impact of generative AI (gen AI) across the enterprise. A new integration will combine the power of the Now Platform with IBM watsonx to boost productivity for mutual customers and partners. ServiceNow will also incorporate watsonx.ai and IBM Granite foundation large language models (LLMs) into its Now Assist gen AI experience for ServiceNow customers. Bringing IBM watsonx onto the Now Platform will help customers quickly use both AI platforms to help accelerate workflow productivity even further, ServiceNow said. Customers will have access to a spoke integration of watsonx through ServiceNow’s Integration Hub for third-party platforms. In turn, they will be able to connect their ServiceNow workflows to models they have trained and tuned within watsonx.ai, IBM’s enterprise studio for AI builders. "Our expanded collaboration with IBM reinforces our GenA I strategy to prioritise...

Boomi, the intelligent integration and automation provider, has extended its strategic business alliance with RSM US — the provider of assurance, tax and consulting services for the middle market. Through this alliance, RSM will leverage the Boomi platform to help middle market companies thrive. “As middle market organisations increasingly adopt cloud technologies, seamlessly connecting various systems and applications becomes critical,” said Shari Lava, Research Director, IDC.  “However, many of them struggle with data trapped in separate systems, manual workflows that drain employee time, and limited IT resources to implement robust integration solutions. Low-code integration is a crucial tool to overcoming complexity, while improving efficiency, agility, and sustained growth.” The alliance between Boomi and RSM tackles the obstacles confronting middle market organisations by leveraging Boomi’s low-code integration platform as a service (iPaaS) and RSM’s ability to help tailor ...

ExtraHop , a cloud-native network detection and response (NDR) provider, has found organisations are generally ill-equipped to manage and mitigate their cyber risk following a significant increase in ransomware attacks and cybersecurity incident downtime. Although the majority (88%) of IT and cybersecurity decision makers said in ExtraHop's 3rd annual Global Cyber Confidence Index report that they are confident in their organisations’ ability to manage cyber risk, most acknowledged that they are frequently the victim of ongoing threats, and falling behind when it comes to identifying and remediating threats.  Source: ExtraHop Global Cyber Confidence Index . Required increase in budgets for effective cyber risk management range from 1% to 200%, with the majority voting for between 11% and 50%. Over one in five (22%) respondents deemed ransomware the biggest risk to their organisation - an unsurprising finding as about half say they are still running at least one insecure network pr...