Published on February 28, 2017 in Cyber Security

We are living in a digital era. As consumers we shop and bank online; as employees we collaborate and connect with our co-workers and customers across the globe. Technology has changed our lives dramatically, becoming an increasingly dominant part of our lives.

Yet while technology has brought economic and skills growth, digital services also bring new risks. Today’s businesses are up against the most complex and innovative security landscape ever seen, one that will only continue to get more complex.

From attacks against Sony to the more recent JP Morgan attack, attackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are persistent in causing havoc for organisations. It is therefore vital that organisations have the right digital security in place.

From physical to digital

We are now seeing criminal gangs turn away from physical theft to cyber security. The Dridex Banking Trojan, for example, represents the scale we are facing and the manner in which cyber criminals can gain access to accounts for their own profit.

It was no surprise when our Digital Inside Out research revealed that ‘security concerns’ was the second highest reason for consumers not using digital services when offered to them.

Protecting from the hackers of today

Businesses need to focus on relevant threats. Many organisations get side-tracked by chatter about the latest threat when it doesn’t actually impact them. By taking things back to a continuous risk-based approach, organisations can target security capabilities in a way which helps them defend against those threats which actually pose a risk to their business.

And by ensuring security assets such as strong passwords, two-factor authentication, patching, risk assessments and IT health checks are in place and communicated to customers, attacks will not occur due to simple mistakes.

With research suggesting that a very high percentage of large and small organisations having suffered a data breach of some sort over the past 12 months, organisations now also need to ensure they can respond to threats in a well-defined and practiced manner with a proven security incident response process.

Businesses also need to gain better visibility into their operating environments and put the processes and capabilities in place in order to help them become more proactive in their approach to security, whilst ensuring that employees fully understand the risks a digital world brings.

Don’t forget about physical

However, while digital security is important in today’s digital world, businesses can’t forget about physical security. Traditionally, criminals used to target physical stores. But as it is now getting easier to detect physical crime, criminals have moved to cyber-attacks to steal data as it is more lucrative and difficult to detect.

If organisations forget about physical security, however, they will end up putting themselves at just as much risk. Managing alarms, sensors and CCTV should remain a top security priority alongside digital solutions. Businesses must make sure these are also protected and not just set with default passwords, otherwise they are at risk of being hijacked.

In today’s technology landscape, online and physical security go hand-in-hand, so it is important that organisations proactively protect themselves from both threats to be in a better position to combat attacks no matter how and where criminals choose to enter. With the new EU GDPR legislation coming into effect in 2018, organisations can no longer afford to be complacent with cyber security.

Check our website to find out how you can protect your business from today’s attackers.

(Visited 244 times, 1 visits today)