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alifornia-based network security firm Palo Alto Networks is expanding its presence in Indonesia to profit from the growing demand for cyber security, not only among business entities but also government institutions.

Palo Alto'€™s managing director for ASEAN and Pakistan, Jonathan Tan, said the company had just opened a new representative office in Indonesia to better cater to the needs of its existing clients in the country as well as targeting more customers.

'€œWe are not specifically targeting any particular organization. We target all enterprises and also government agencies [as potential customers],'€ he said at a press briefing on Monday.

Palo Alto'€™s country director for Indonesia, Pudja Kartiman, said the firm currently had a number of clients, including government agencies, banks and telecommunication firms.

'€œWe are upbeat that more of Indonesia'€™s government agencies and enterprises will become increasingly aware of the [need for] computer network security, especially with cyber security being one of topics discussed by the country'€™s presidential candidates during a recent televised debate,'€ he said.

Tan said there was a growing need for cyber security among many Indonesian manufacturing and financial companies, especially those intending to expand their operations overseas.

'€œWe definitely see a lot of potential in the country [...] Indonesia'€™s total spending on cyber security is also growing fast,'€ he said.

He said he expected Palo Alto to double its business in the country, just as it had done in Singapore.

Citing data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), Tan said he estimated Indonesia'€™s total spending on cyber security currently reached around US$42 million '€” for a number of different products '€” adding that the figure was expected to grow in terms of compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by about 12 percent year-on-year from this year through 2017.

He said global spending on cyber security would also increase as cyber attacks were becoming more advanced and persistent, posing greater threats.

According to a report from Trend Micro, global threats to the online banking industry alone surpassed 200,000 last year, the highest number ever.

A recent cyber attack also struck US retail giant Target, successfully stealing the numbers of 40 million credit cards.

'€œThe [cyber] attacks no longer hit on point of operation, they try to attack applications, such as emails and videos,'€ he said.

Tan said that in order to provide better services to its clients in dealing with such advanced cyber attacks, Palo Alto had launched a next-generation firewall.

He said the next-generation firewall provided better security for customers because it did not work in the same way traditional firewalls.

'€œThe legacy technology [on traditional firewalls] works by detecting the malware entering a network and deleting it. The next-generation firewall, however, prevents potential malware from entering a network in the first place,'€ he said.

Palo Alto, which was established in 2005, has enjoyed a significant increase in its global revenue since then. Last year, its revenue surged by 55 percent to $396.1 million from $255 million in 2012.