Cisco has come up with the latest report of its flagship Cybersecurity Readiness Index to underline the landscape of preparedness and actions of companies against cyberthreats globally. The 2025 Cybersecurity Readiness Index classifies the companies as mature, progressive, formative, and beginner. The report categorizes 7 percent of Indian businesses as mature, 37 percent as progressive, and 51 percent as formative, while the rest, 5 percent, are categorized as beginners in protecting their digital infrastructure against alien elements. 

The index ranks businesses' efforts or stages of solutions deployed to address issues, including identity intelligence, network resilience, machine trustworthiness, cloud reinforcement, and lastly, AI fortification. It is based on a double-blind survey of 8,000 private sector business leaders who have cybersecurity responsibilities in their organizations across 30 markets. 

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Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index: 2024 Report

In 2024, Indian businesses were identified as 4 percent mature, 37 percent Progressive, 52 percent Formative, and finally 7 percent as Beginner. India’s rankings and composition have improved significantly, moving more towards becoming aware and prepared for the cybersecurity threats that hold the potential to disrupt businesses significantly. 

However, the question we need to ask is whether the figure of 7 percent mature businesses is significant enough, looking at the extensive risk we are talking about. 

To read about Kaspersky's latest uncovering of a cyberattack by the infamous Lazarus group on South Korean companies, click here!  

The Complexity of AI

According to the Cisco survey, 86% of respondents reported that their organizations experienced AI-related security incidents in the past year. Despite this, only 45% believe their organizations have the internal resources and expertise to carry out comprehensive AI security assessments on a global scale. Interestingly, just 10% of all companies surveyed consider AI to be the most challenging area to secure worldwide.

Global Cybersecurity Readiness 

Global cybersecurity readiness remains low year over year, as many organizations continue to underestimate the complexities introduced by AI. As AI reshapes the security landscape, it brings new layers of threats and demands more sophisticated defense strategies. Despite these growing challenges, only 45% of respondents in this year’s survey report allocating more than 10% of their IT budgets to cybersecurity, down from 53% in 2024. 

Amid rising concerns, only 4% of organizations have achieved a mature level of cybersecurity readiness—an increase of just 1% from the previous year.