What does the top management fail to understand the need and importance of investing in Cybersecurity and data protection plans time and again?
The pandemic made it highly evident that cybercriminals are raging and waiting to pounce on any organization showing signs of a vulnerable security posture. Despite that, many businesses do not consider this a warning sign until they witness a threat within their own ecosystem.
This needs to be addressed, and the only way to resolve this issue is to make the management aware of the significance and the importance of Cybersecurity for businesses. It is imperative that they consider information security, application security, infrastructure security, and device security as primary objectives and not leave them behind in hindsight!
Certain questions that many people get when they are asked to implement cybersecurity practices are -
- Why is Cybersecurity important?
- Why do we need Cybersecurity?
- Why is Cybersecurity required?
And the answer to all of these questions is quite simple.+
As and when the technology upgrades, the chances of it being misused elevates. Intruders know how to make the most of modern advancements and leverage any security gaps to infiltrate any organization that can be taken advantage of.
Cybersecurity is so important, especially in the business world, because critical data and Infrastructure of any organization are at a higher risk of getting attacked by fraudsters. To protect the integrity and foundation of a company, Cybersecurity needs to be harnessed and enhanced alongside.
Let us take a look at the top 5 reasons why businesses need to shift their focus to Cybersecurity, especially during current times.
1) Remote work = Increased Risk of Cyberattacks
It is a fact that most people must’ve read about in recent months that remote work is here to stay.
And, it has also been identified that the number of corporate cyber-attacks increased ever since organizations made the shift to remote work.
According to FortiGuard Labs, the average weekly ransomware activity in June 2021 was more than tenfold higher than levels from one year ago.
This could be because of the needed migration to the cloud. Even though the workloads were moved to the cloud, its security was not ensured.
Cloud security assessments can help with the identification of threats caused by misconfigurations, unwarranted access, and non-standard deployments.
2) Critical Threats to the Infrastructure
While many organizations could afford the liberty of working online, some institutions and industries need to be on-premise, for example – hospitals and essential service providers. Such enterprises though now following modern technology protocols and trends display a weak infrastructure security posture.
Attacks on such institutions can cause massive destruction to the operations and reputation of the firm. Let’s take an example of a hospital. Today, most hospitals use EHRs and EMRs to store their patients’ health and medical records. In case of any intrusion, these records can be withheld from the hospital in exchange for the demanded ransom. Now, until the ransom is paid, life-threatening information is in the hands of the criminals and away from the caregivers, who might actually need to perform any medical procedures.
For such organizations, Critical Infrastructure Assessment is needed to ensure that there is no destruction of expensive equipment or interruption of critical operations. The importance of Cybersecurity for such organizations is highly critical and time sensitive.
3) Cyber Criminals Love Vulnerable Applications
It has been that a vulnerable application attracts a lot of cyber-criminal activities. The reason being that a vulnerable mobile or web application is easy to penetrate, and sophisticated attackers have mastered the art of exploiting code to manipulate communication protocol.
This can lead to a massive blow to the brand value as well as to the functioning of the products of a company. This is why organizations need to take care of their mobile application security and web application security. It is incredibly significant that no leaf is left unturned to find business-critical flaws in your mobile and web application.
Extensive audit techniques can sweep every corner of your system to discover potential attack surfaces.
4) IT is the Backbone of Your Company – Protect it!
Each and every company today has at least some part of its organization modernized according to technical advancements. The IT department is what keeps the operations up and running, making it more than necessary to protect the IT aspect of your company.
A hit to the IT system can cause disruption to the working of almost every other operation. Sophisticated attackers are now targeting IT systems to fry the operations from its code, and a complete review of the code and IT department is now a necessity.
Conduct frequent testing and analysis to make sure that the technical foundation of your company stays intact. Train your IT team from time to time and make sure they upskill themselves keeping up with the pace of the modern criminals and creating an efficient incident response plan while understanding the dire importance of Cybersecurity.
5) Hackers will Hack
Just like a teacher will teach, a doctor will treat, a programmer will code, and a criminal will crimes, it is bound that a hacker will hack. Now, know that not all hackers are ethical hackers and also that not all hackers are attackers. But it is always better to be safe than sorry.
Look at the security posture of your organization from a hacker’s point of view. If it can be infiltrated, it is only a matter of time that a real hacker will take advantage and comprise your assets. If the emulation of a cyber-attack can leave your systems in a beaten state, know that a real-world attack will be worse.
So, the right way to go for you would be to conduct a red team assessment, where offensive tactics, techniques, and procedures are utilized to gain access to an organization’s critical assets, to test the organization’s readiness to detect and withstand a targeted attack.
Some more benefits of Cybersecurity or advantages of Cybersecurity are -
Businesses need to understand why Cybersecurity is of prime importance. Here, we’ve tried to provide some input and help enterprises take a more comprehensive step towards the implementation of Cybersecurity to protect their business.