How Can Businesses Protect Themselves ?
Probably one of the first things organisations need is a policy for enforcing strong authentication methods , particularly strong passwords for all users . According to a 2016 study from SplashData , the two most popular passwords for the past couple of years have remained “ 12345 ” and “ password ,” while the third is “ 12345678 ”. While most data breaches that affect companies involve stealing employee credentials via phishing or social engineering scams , attackers have been able to breach particular networks just by guessing or brute -forcing authentication credentials .
Another important security measure that organisations need to implement is endpoint security and some form of centralised security management console that can offer security administrators visibility into network threats and the capability of remotely managing security policies . Combining that with network traffic monitoring capabilities , organisations can actively watch their infrastructure for threats and intrusions .
Companies that accept BYOD should have the proper policies set in place to avoid data or network breaches caused by infected employee devices connected to the corporate network . To this end , organisations that decide to support BYOD should start setting up DMZs , separate networks for employee personal devices , and even specify which devices are permitted to access – or not – critical data .
CIOs are also encouraged to start looking for a penetration testing and vulnerability scanning team or solution that ’ s able to constantly stress-test the internal infrastructure and come up with new plausible attack scenarios to help train both employees and the IT department . This has been considered a very effective tactic in proactively fending off cyberattacks and in minimising the financial impact of a security breach . CIOs and CSOs need to budget these security assets and convince upper level managers that the benefits of having such a team far outweigh the financial risks they ’ re exposing themselves to .
Of course , in the security chain the weakest link is usually the human component , which is susceptible to social engineering , phishing and other forms of cyberattacks . To this end , educating all employees in identifying threats or fraud attempts and reporting them to internal IT departments is mandatory . Some of the most prone to spear phishing attacks or spam campaigns are usually personnel in accounting , human resources , or acquisitions , as most email usually contain titles related to “ please check attached invoice ,” “ here ’ s your confirmation order ,” or other such topics .
Finally , one crucial thing that any organisation or company needs to prepare is a worst-case-scenario . These are designed to quickly identify key stakeholders in case of an eventual data breach , personnel responsible to mitigating the found threat or vulnerability , how and when to start communicating with your customers if their data has been compromised , and a forensic team that can study the breach thoroughly to quickly come up with ways to prevent such future cyberattacks . After a security breach , all companies need to ask themselves what they have learned from it . If the answer doesn ’ t immediately translate into actions or steps taken to proactive counter similar such attacks , a similar attack is bound to happen again .
It ’ s all about the money !
Whether its companies or cybercriminals , the main motivation behind either setting up corporate security mechanisms or developing malware is always money . When allocating or forecasting security budgets , companies usually rely on the CIO and CSOs to perform SWAT analyses and risk assessment strategies to convince the stakeholders to share a bigger slice of the “ cash ” budget towards security . At the other end , malware coders usually apply the same strategy when writing malware , as their main focus is to either steal and sell intellectual property or extort their victims .
The main difference between security and cybercriminals is that the return-oninvestment for deploying security technologies within an organisation is far smaller than the one for cybercriminals . For ransomware alone it has been estimated that the ROI is around 1,425 %, according to a security report . To this end , it ’ s safe to assume that , while companies might find it difficult to justify additional security costs either on a quarterly or yearly basis , cybercriminals are in the win , as they ’ re getting the most benefit with minimum investment .
“ A cyber hacker is nothing more than a bank robber using another weapon . His motivation is robbery and theft .”
L . Collins
Amid the proliferation of IoT devices and their integration with corporate networks , Gartner believes that security costs will increase to 20 % of annual security budgets . Ironically , the malware-as-a-service industry will start reducing development and deployment costs as new tools are being developed that make it amazingly simple even for non-tech-savvy individuals to purchase , customise and deploy threats on a global scale .
Takeaway
While security experts have been arguing that large , medium and small businesses need to stop thinking about “ how ” and start thinking of “ when ” they ’ re going to be breached , it ’ s up to CIOs and CSOs to both prepare for the worst and disseminate this message to all company stakeholders .
What is increasingly clear is that cybercriminals will up the game in performing cyberattacks , and companies need to be prepared to fight – and sometimes lose a battle or two – against this wide range of potential cyberattacks . The challenge here is to always learn from past mistakes and collaborate with both government institutions and private security companies in fending off , mitigating and recovering from future attacks .
This Executive Brief , written by CIO Insight explains how security leaders can take a more proactive approach to their security operations , and weave it into the total IT strategy . In this brief you ’ ll learn :
How legacy vs . next-gen endpoint security solutions operate within today ’ s datacenter environments .
What the overall cost of a breach can mean – not just in dollars , but in brand reputation .
The top 3 business enablers that can result from a modern approach to your security operations .
Visit www . securityplusonline . co . uk for your free copy of the brief .
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