Dive Brief:
- Chinese companies have had to deal with a dramatic increase in cyberattacks in the past two years, according to a new survey from PwC of 440 China-based respondents. Since 2014, the average number of cyberattacks against companies in China and Hong Kong has grown 969%.
- Each Chinese company surveyed sees an average of seven attacks per day. While the number of daily attacks are on the rise, globally they have fallen 30% since 2015, though the average is still 13 attacks per day.
- PwC experts have blamed the increase in average attacks on China's quick adoption of the Internet of Things, which often have lacking cybersecurity standards.
Dive Insight:
Just like the rest of the world, China is struggling with cyberattacks that stem from insecure IoT devices. Botnets have recently been leveraged to execute large-scale and disruptive attacks. One of the most notable is the Mirai botnet, which was responsible for the Dyn DDoS attack. German authorities have also blamed Mirai for the attack against Duetsche Telekom.
But China is bucking the trend. Whereas other countries have seen a decrease in the number of attacks, China is suffering more than ever before. Chinese companies will have to pay particularly close attention to securing devices in the future to boost their national security posture.
In the U.S., congress is weighing best practices to prevent the production of compromised IoT devices and further botnets. But there are several challenges around managing IoT security, but not many solutions. One challenge is the fact that most IoT devices aren’t made in the U.S., so U.S.-based regulations would not be effective
