Data breach costs rise 28% in India: IBM Security

Data breach cost in India touches new high in India: IBM report

The average cost of a data breach in India reached has reached an all-time-high of Rs 17.9 crore in 2023, according to the Cost of a Data Breach Report by IBM Security. This represents a 28% increase since 2020. Detection and escalation costs jumped 45% over this same time frame, representing the highest portion of breach costs, and indicating a shift towards more complex breach investigations.

According to the report, at nearly 22%, the most common attack type in India was phishing, followed by stolen or compromised credentials (16%). Social engineering was the costliest root cause of breaches at Rs 19.1 crore, followed by malicious insider threats, which amounted to approximately Rs 18.8 crore.

According to the 2023 IBM report, globally businesses are divided in how they plan to handle the increasing cost and frequency of data breaches. The report found that while 95% of organisations studied globally have experienced more than one breach, these breached organizations were more likely to pass incident costs onto consumers (57%) than to increase security investments (51%).

In India, 28% of data breaches studied resulted in the loss of data spanning multiple types of environments (i.e., public cloud, private cloud, on-prem) – indicating that attackers were able to compromise multiple environments while avoiding detection. When breached data was stored across multiple environments, it also had the highest associated breach costs (Rs 18.8 crore) and took the longest to identify and contain (327 days).

HDFC ERGO opens GenAI centre in partnership with Google Cloud

HDFC ERGO General Insurance is launching a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google Cloud will be supporting HDFC Ergo with identifying and developing use cases and upskilling their teams on Gen AI.

Google Cloud will support HDFC ERGO in establishing best practices and guidelines to ensure the responsible and ethical use of generative AI for their developers. By leveraging the capabilities of its CoE, HDFC ERGO aims to develop new products and services, enhance the efficiency of existing processes, and optimize costs.

The CoE will also offer training and upskilling opportunities to employees on generative AI technologies, empowering young jobseekers to stay at the forefront of this rapidly evolving field.

B Capital signs MoU with SAP to support its portfolio companies

B Capital, a venture capital firm, has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SAP to support growth and innovation for B Capital’s portfolio companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Under the MoU, B Capital’s portfolio companies will benefit from a joint go-to-market strategy (GTM) as well as access to SAP’s global reach, resources, business networks and best practices. They will also be able to learn more about and evaluate SAP’s suite of enterprise solutions, including fit-to-standard cloud offerings such as GROW with SAP, that are designed to help SMEs and start-ups scale quickly.

The collaboration aims to offer B Capital’s portfolio companies tailored, end-to-end support for their software solutions, helping progress them through development to being available for purchase on the SAP Store, an online marketplace of software solutions from SAP and its partners, available in more than 200 countries and territories globally.

B Capital and SAP have a longstanding relationship. Several of B Capital’s portfolio companies have adopted SAP’s solutions to improve enterprise resource planning (ERP) workflows and enhance experiences.

Genpact collaborates with Microsoft for OpenAI Service

Genpact, a business process management company has announced a collaboration with Microsoft that allows its employees to access Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service to enable them to unlock new opportunities to implement generative AI capabilities for clients.

Genpact has identified various opportunities to leverage large language models (LLMs) to drive enterprise efficiencies in areas such as transition management, global service desk management, infrastructure management, and other areas.

Generative AI has the ability to help companies improve employee productivity, and enhance operational efficiency and agility, allowing Genpact’s business teams – the domain experts – to develop use cases that solve the many day-to-day challenges enterprises face. Azure’s cloud infrastructure coupled with the flexibility of the Azure OpenAI Service will help accelerate these solution developments.

This relationship with Microsoft builds on Genpact’s expertise in AI innovation–from decades-long investments in advanced data analytics to strategic AI acquisitions, to leading-edge technology solutions and extensive experience with LLMs across numerous industries, including consumer goods, retail, life sciences, healthcare, hi-tech, and financial services.

Airtel Business touches on new landmark on connected IoT devices

Bharti Airtel has announced that its B2B business division, Airtel Business, has hit a new mark by connecting over 20 million devices through its IoT solutions. Airtel IoT enables enterprises across industries such as automobile, energy, utilities, logistics, financial services, manufacturing and many more with a secure and dedicated private network for the safe transmission of all customer data across connected devices.

Some of the key wins for Airtel IoT deployment in recent times include a partnership with Secure Meters for the deployment of 1.3 million smart meters in Bihar on NB-IoT; a partnership with TP Western Odisha Distribution Limited (TPWODL)—a joint venture between the Government of Odisha and Tata Power for the deployment of 200,000 Smart Meters in Odisha; and a partnership with Matter Motor Works to power 300,000 bikes through cellular IoT.

Powered with an extensive suite of innovative solutions such as asset tracking, vehicle telematics, industrial asset monitoring, smart metering, amongst many others, Airtel Business’s integrated IoT platform offers customised solutions for each unique IoT requirement of enterprises across 5G, 4G, NB-IoT, 2G and satellite.

Airtel Business has a strong global presence across the US, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and SAARC, among other locations.