š”ļø Sri Lanka Cyber Readiness: Tackling "Dark Data" & Fraud Ahead of 2027 PDPA
The 2nd Data Privacy and Protection Summit 2026 convened over 380 industry leaders to address critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities, dark data, and the role of AI-driven defenses in Sri Lanka's digital economy.
ā¢ Rising Cyber Threat & Fraud Metrics
ā¢ Estimated card-not-present fraud losses jumped 149% from 2025 to reach US$ 49 Bn across the Asia Pacific region.
ā¢ Nearly 60% of data breaches stem from unmanaged, forgotten "dark data" systems.
ā¢ Global average cost of a data breach reached US$ 4.8 Mn in 2024, with 75% of consumers refusing to transact with breached firms.
ā¢ High-Risk Sectors & Attack Vectors
ā¢ 70% of cyberattacks target three foundational pillars: ICT/BPM (technology), financial services, and the government sector.
ā¢ Primary threats targeting local entities: Malware, email phishing, ransomware, and reconnaissance.
ā¢ Key targets include customer financial data, personally identifiable information (PII), business systems, and intellectual property.
ā¢ Strategic Imperatives for Sri Lanka
ā¢ Upcoming enforcement of Sri Lanka's Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) on 1 January 2027 makes data governance a critical strategic priority.
ā¢ Adoption of AI-powered security is key to automatically discovering, classifying, and securing unstructured sleeping data across banking and connected payment networks.