MUMBAI: Business leaders in India are increasingly waking up to the threat of cyber-crime according to the third Lloyd’s Risk Index conducted by Ipsos.

Ipsos surveyed over 500 of the world’s most senior business leaders for the Risk Index, which shows that cyber risk has become a key concern among Indian businesses, soaring up the Index from the 23rd highest priority in 2011 to 3rd this year.

The findings show that Indian businesses are taking cyber security more seriously than their Asia-Pac counterparts; prioritising cyber risk five places higher than the Asia-Pac average of eighth place.

While prioritisation of cyber risk is high, business leaders feel less prepared to cope with the threat of an incident, rating cyber just 14th in terms of the risks they are most prepared to deal with.

The increased awareness of cyber risk comes at a time when research has shown the average annualised cost of cyber breaches has sharply increased. For 56 benchmarked organisations the average cost was $ 8.9 million a year, up from $ 8.4 million in 2011, and ranging from $ 1.4 million to $ 46 million per year, per company.

Lloyd’s head of Asia-Pacific Kent Chaplin said: “It’s encouraging to see Indian businesses increasingly leading the way when it comes to recognising the threat of cyber incidents. As recent high profile events have shown, cyber-breaches are only getting more sophisticated and it seems business leaders are beginning to acknowledge that.”

“However, the risks faced by Indian businesses go far beyond cyber and leaders must ensure they are responding to the challenges they face today and evolving to meet the emerging risks of tomorrow. With the timetable for global economic recovery likely to be much longer than we hoped, effective risk management should be a priority for boards across the world,” added Chaplin.