Information and cyber insecurity have emerged as the top prevailing risks faced by Indian companies and the Government. This was highlighted in a FICCI-Pinkerton report titled “India Risk Survey 2012” released on Wednesday.
“The respondents, across sectors and regions, rate information and cyber insecurity as the highest risk to business establishments. While IT and financial sectors count cyber insecurity as their apex risk, even the government, manufacturing and telecom sectors have rated it under their top three risks”, said Mr Gurpawan Singh, Managing Director, Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations (India) Pvt. Ltd.
The FICCI-Pinkerton survey elicited responses from top management in industry sectors such as IT/ITES, security service providers, manufacturing, financial services, telecom, the Government, PSUs, hospitality, infrastructure, retail, medical services, education and NGOs.
Other top risks in the survey include terrorism, fire, strikes and Intellectual Property Rights theft. Internal risks, such as workplace violence or industrial accidents, have been rated low across the board, pointed out the report.
The northern and eastern regions of India indicated terrorism as their prime risks whereas the western and southern regions placed it at number two and six respectively.
“Respondents from outside of India rated terrorism at number four, quite different from the popular perception and foreign media reports that indicate terrorism to be their prime risk,” the report added.