Elevating Cybersecurity Awareness: A Critical Imperative

The technology industry moves at lightning speed, with innovations, developments, and new advancements coming to market every day. As an organization, it can be difficult to gauge what to adopt, when to integrate it, as well as whether it will add any value. To add fuel to this fire, the shadow of cyber threats looms large, ready to wreak havoc on systems and ultimately your bottom line. While not every new tech trend or product demands mainstream adoption, the need for organizations to cultivate a deep awareness of cyber risks has never been more crucial.

The good news? We’re here to lay out exactly why you need to enhance your cybersecurity practices (it might actually surprise you!) and provide some easy steps you can take to integrate critical controls into your processes.

THE EVOLUTION OF CYBERSECURITY

Technology isn’t the only thing evolving rapidly. The threats and risks relating to cybersecurity are also changing at warp speed. Take ransomware, for example. Ransomware has evolved from locking files to jumping right to exfiltration, extracting sensitive information from systems and potentially broadcasting it globally.. Locking a system is concerning but exfiltration is on another level, and even more so if you have intellectual property or proprietary information that if released, could create greater problems.  

The emergence of artificial intelligence being used in the world of cyber criminals has heightened the risk matrix as well. The creation and propagation of deepfakes are now so sophisticated that distinguishing between what’s real and what’s fabricated has become increasingly challenging.. These factors and more all compound and magnify the importance of having good controls in place, and mitigating exposures before they happen.

THE REAL REASONS CYBERSECURITY GETS SO MUCH ATTENTION

We’ve established that the world of cyber has matured, but the good news is that cybersecurity has also emerged as an industry itself, with products and services designed to offer a level of data protection not previously seen, or even required. Although it’s safe to say that protecting your intellectual property and technology assets is more important now than ever, you may be surprised to know that our customers cited the following top 3 motivators for their heightened focus on cybersecurity:

• Compliance: The rise of data breaches and cyber threats has become so prolific that organizations with government contracts, manufacturing processes, and publicly traded shares all require evidence of strong safety and data protection controls as part of contract agreements and compliance requirements. 
  
  
• Cybersecurity insurance: Speaking of contracts, many require evidence of cybersecurity insurance, a key player in any organization’s risk mitigation strategy. However, to obtain this type of insurance, organizations need to outline and provide evidence of how they are managing their technology, how they are protecting data, storing and using third-party information as well as contingency and disaster recovery plans if indeed their systems are compromised or paralyzed due to a cyber event.
  
  
• Fear: Okay, this last one may not surprise you too much, but the reality is that breach events are abundant and the media makes sure we hear about them. While we’d never normally encourage fear-based decisions, the unfortunate reality is that this fear is legitimate. The rise of cyber threats is rooted in data, and there are serious exposures associated with inadequate systems and information protection.

THE GOOD (CYBERSECURITY) NEWS

Adequately combating cyber threats requires a layered approach; one that integrates your people, your systems, and your tools. Here are four crucial steps any organization can (and should) take, to mitigate their cyber threat exposures:

• Training: Educating your teams on the abundant threats and being aware of them is a critical piece of the cybersecurity protection process. It’s still human error that causes most cyber incidents. Take it from the experts:
  
  

‘Your people are your first firewall.’

Your people are the ones getting hit with spam, or being asked to click on links that they shouldn’t be clicking on; arming them with knowledge on how to spot scams and fakes is a simple yet highly effective way to mitigate exposures. Creating a culture where questioning the validity or putting dual protection procedures in place is highly encouraged, given that the adage ‘it’s better to be safe than sorry’ could not be more true in these instances.

• Dark Web Scanning: Implement available solutions that can scan the web, highlighting if any information is out there, including passwords and confidential material. Identifying the issues and mitigating them before they’ve had a chance to infiltrate can make or break any risk strategy.
  
  
• Next-Gen Endpoint Protection: We’ve talked about the evolution of AI in the world of cyber criminals but equally important to highlight is that there have been significant advancements made in using AI to combat cybercrime too. There are behavioral-based AI tools available in the market that can identify nefarious acts by scanning systems, stopping threats in their tracks. The tools available are easy to implement and on one platform, you can even get enterprise-wide coverage.
  
  
• Two-Factor Authentication: Any conversation around cybersecurity best practices would be incomplete without mention of two-factor authentication, given it continues to be a key aspect of security. Two-factor authentication is a process that ensures the accuracy of identity verification, given two different authentication factors are used to provide that verification. And while that might sound like a simple step to implement, two-factor authentication has been shown to dramatically reduce cyber attacks and significantly improve security. 

EMBRACING THE FUTURE OF CYBERSECURITY WITH CONFIDENCE

At iVenture Solutions, we’ve been at the forefront of cybersecurity for the last 25 years. And though the risks and threats are developing, we’ve successfully implemented programs, processes, devices and tools to help countless customers mitigate them. 

We first understand what our customers need, then recommend the best available solutions. We can help you to implement risk mitigation services into your organization, so you can rest assured that your systems, your data and your network is secure. Stay ahead of hackers and protect your business- reach out today.