Bengaluru, Sep 19 (IANS): Companies in India receive a whopping 500,000 security alerts every day and 39 per cent of them, or up to 200,000 alerts, go unattended due to lack of required skill sets, said a Cisco study released on Wednesday.

The number of security alerts that companies in India get is nearly thrice the number of alerts faced by global companies, according to the study, "Cisco 2018 Asia-Pacific Security Capabilities Benchmark Study".

"As India is taking huge strides in transforming into a digital economy, cybersecurity threats could pose a serious risk for its success," Vishak Raman, Director, Security, Cisco India and Saarc, said in a statement.

"Companies and governments alike should consider adopting advanced security technologies that include Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence capabilities and also look at bridging the gap of skilled cybersecurity professionals in the country through relevant training and support," Raman said.

Interestingly, India witnesses the second-highest instances of legitimate threats in the Asia-Pacific region behind Australia, the findings showed.

While Australia sees 65 per cent legitimate cybersecurity threat, India is at par with the regional standard at 44 per cent.

So a whopping 56 per cent of the investigated alerts in India turn out to be false, adding to the burden of existing security defenders who need to ensure that they are working on the right alerts.

Indian breaches, however, caused a lower financial impact as compared to its regional counterparts, with 27 per cent of the Indian respondents reporting the cost of a breach to b less than $100,000. A fifth of them reported a breach cost between $5 million and $10 million.

The cost of a breach is highest in Australia, with 52 per cent reporting that an attack costs between $1 and $5 million, compared to Japan (23 per cent) and India (25 per cent), added the report, based on insights on security practices from more than 2,000 respondents across 11 countries.

The security breaches include costs from lost revenue, loss of customers and out of pocket expenses among other things.