As the world adopts more and more technology, the risk of compromising cyber security becomes more real and it is here.

Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, is involved with the cyber security industry trying to ensure that organisations and governments can cope with their vulnerabilities.

Arora has seen the tech world up-close. From Google to SoftBank, he has witnessed tech-enabled disruptions over the past two decades.

With the COVID pandemic pushing the adoption of tech like never before, cyber securities is one of the top priorities for governments and corporations. However, Arora cautions that the gap between what is being done and what is needed is still large and needs fixing.

Arora in an exclusive interview with Shereen Bhan said, "The cyber security problem was always bad, companies had not paid attention to their cyber security postures and their need for security. What has happened is, a lot more people know about it because the bad actors have figured out they can sit in their basements or their couches or in some far away country and attack the defences of a corporation in a different country. Now suddenly it has gone from a hobby to a profession."

"You see the ransomware threats have gone up. The average ransomware ask was $5.3 million this year as opposed to $8,00,000 last year. So people have figured out there is money to be made here and it is still the Wild West - it is still very hard to figure out what the rules are, should you be paying a ransom or not, how should you pay a ransom, what are the consequences of paying a ransom etc. Now companies are more vulnerable not only because of hybrid nature of work but also because some are in public cloud, some are in their own data centre and everybody is working from their home."

"You can be protected when you are in office but now you have got to make sure that protection extends to your devices home. So, the attack surface has gone up 3-5 times in this pandemic and the automation is getting accelerated. So a lot of businesses, lot of government, local governments needs to get their cyber security posture up because this is the most vulnerable part of their infrastructure."

He said flexibility of work from anywhere has become a competitive weapon and is being used as an incentive.

"Governments are piling money into the economy and people have tons of job opportunities. What is happening, the flexibility of work from anywhere that you are able to offer employees is actually becoming a competitive weapon. Companies are using that as a mechanism to entice people to come to work, they are using it as a way of saying you don't have to be physically at an office or any of our locations, you can come from wherever you want. So from just a benefit that we want to offer to an employee, it has now become an incentive."

According to Arora, foreign investors are looking to bet on India's growing middle class.

"Capital was already heading to India. The investors are watching the markets and saying the internet services that are being offered are consequence of the population, rising GDP and the rising middle-class of every country. So they are looking at it and saying how can I go and invest in this growing population and how can I go and invest in this growing middle class in India? So you are seeing the money transfer happen over there."

Watch video for entire discussion.

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)