Fortinet Asia-Pacific SASE Survey Reveals “Branch-Office-of-One” Remains a Challenge for Network Security in the Hybrid Work Era

82% of respondents in Indonesia have experienced at least a 2X increase in security incidents

Fortinet®, the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, unveiled the findings of a new Asia-Pacific SASE survey commissioned by Fortinet from IDC today.

The report is based on a recent survey conducted by IDC across nine countries in Asia/Pacific and explores cybersecurity leaders’ perspectives on hybrid work, particularly how it impacted their organizations in the last year and their strategies to mitigate the security challenges arising from the adoption of hybrid work.

Key findings from the survey include: 

The Rise of the ‘Branch-Office-of-One’: According to the survey, 96% of respondents in Indonesia have a hybrid or fully remote working model, with more than half (54%) having at least 50% of their employees working in hybrid mode. This shift to remote work has resulted in employees becoming ‘branch offices of one,’ working from their homes or other locations outside the traditional office.

Consequently, 86% of respondents in Indonesia anticipate managed devices to surge by more than 100% over the next two years (with some expecting growth of 400%). Additionally, 80% in Indonesia expect unmanaged devices to grow by over 50%. This is expected to compound the complexity and risk of security breaches, placing additional strain on already overburdened IT security teams.

Unmanaged Devices Pose a Risk: With cloud computing and remote work becoming more prevalent, an increasing number of users, devices, and data are located outside of enterprise networks. Currently, more than 30% of devices connecting to networks in Indonesia are unmanaged, raising the possibility of security breaches. Survey respondents in Indonesia expect this figure to rise, with 80% predicting a 50% increase by 2025.

The Need to Secure Cloud: With hybrid work increasing, employees require multiple connections to external systems and cloud applications to remain productive. Survey respondents indicated that their employees in Indonesia need close to 30 connections to third-party cloud applications, increasing the risk of security breaches.

Over the next two years, 100% of respondents in Indonesia expect this number to double, while more than 74% feel that this number will triple, exacerbating the risk. Maintaining network security while ensuring employee connectivity to third-party and cloud-based services is a significant challenge, as traditional security measures are inadequate.

Increased Security Incidents:  Hybrid work and the growth in managed and unmanaged connections have caused a significant rise in security incidents, with 74% of surveyed organizations in Indonesia reporting more than triple the number of breaches. According to the Survey, 82% of respondents in Indonesia have experienced at least a 2X increase in security incidents.

The top security incidents include phishing, denial of service, data/identity theft, ransomware, and data loss. However, only 49% of organizations across Asia have dedicated security personnel, which leaves them more vulnerable to security incidents and breaches.

SASE: A Game-Changer for Hybrid Work: To tackle the challenges of hybrid work, many organizations across Indonesia plan to invest in a Single-Vendor SASE solution to improve their security posture and provide consistency in the user experience for remote employees.

The need for a comprehensive solution that offers a consistent security posture for users on and off the network while simplifying security policy management and enhancing the user experience for remote employees is driving many organizations to explore SASE.

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