By Unique Kumar, Group Chief Information Security Officer, Ck Birla Group
With increase in Cyberattacks worldwide – Who has the major responsibility?
In the past few years, we have found emerging threats in world of digital which are lined to cyber security. Now, several organizations have also adopted remote working trends. However, who should look after the security of the remote work? Starting from school children to large businesses everyone is now enabled with remote working. The cyber risks are also increasing day by day. Everyone would say that the IT department must take this responsibility. One of the key reasons in increase of cyber attacks is lack of security guidance, underlying controls & vulnerabilities are difficult to handle from home environment where you are not behind firewalls, relaxed or limited security policies, no latest patches, updates etc.
The tech leaders and businesses must go through different steps to strengthen trust and make the remote work secure. Cyber risk management becomes easier with the defence model.
Know what is most valuable to your organization- Crown Jewels
None of the organizations and their crown jewels or digital assets are 100% secure. One particular security solution can never be effective in serving your purpose.
The recent pandemic has transformed the work environment, and you have to identify the most important things for you. Businesses leaders need to look for finding a way to detect the most sensitive data. Loss of that data will be disastrous to organizations. Thus, you have to ensure the best security systems for that data. Both the IT team and businesses have to protect the data.
Moreover, by differentiating the critical data from the trivial ones, you will have the best result. Invest in securities based on business identification of data and find higher returns. Solve the issues that may damage your business status, reputation & customer retention&trust of consumer.
Focus on coaching
Your employees can unintentionally hit malicious links, and this mistake can cause disaster. The most important thing is to report this mistake to prevent the virus from spreading to the system.
One of the best ways of developing trust is to provide coaching, guidance to the team of employees. If someone informs you that there are issues with your security protocols, or inform about phishing emails, He or She might had clicked on email but most important is to appreciate that user has informed about it to take further action & applying technology controls.
Let employees understand the need for revealing mistakes without hiding them. You may also declare rewards for employees who take proactive steps. It will help in developing trust in your organizational members.
Train Human Firewall (First line of defence)
Internal threats are highly risky for any business, and it is vital to take protective steps against these threats. Thus, you have to check employees background periodically. Based on their reliability, you may give access to sensitive data& appropriate privileges. It eventually should be a credit score ratings which allows loan limit, Similarly, it is like creating a safe and trusted in-house team, you can keep your data secure. At a company level, there should be a clear matrix that mention that what happens inside and outside your organization, how many attacks have been stopped by human firewalls and how many were through & take corrective action. It is one of the steps significant aspect to ensure good cybersecurity culture.
Choose proactive controls
To have proactive controls, you need to use the right tools and technologies. You can secure your business computer network. As there are checkpoints, you must find what passes through them. With leveraging right software using AI, ML tools, ATP you can keep away from system vulnerabilities.
Another defence line is related to external threats. For instance, you can analyse the internet chatroom communication problems. Check the network to find vulnerability problems.
This is not one time but ongoing work which is like brushing teeth every day.
It is another protective step to avoid potential threats present outside your organization. You can implement some tools to help you in tracking threats. This will help your employees can continue doing their works confidently& results would be much productive.
Fight against threats present in the modern digital sphere
The term cybersecurity easily reminds us of the IT team of an organization. The IT professionals deal with codes, scan viruses, and install firewalls while sitting in front of the camera. These are major responsibilities of IT specialists.
Technologies also play a role in securing the cyber world. You need to analyze how your company has implemented technologies. While processing payments, sending emails, and managing social pages, you have to implement the best security system. It will help in developing trust in your customers and employees. Your business data will also be safe from attacks. Although you have a talented IT team, you have to focus on these factors for cybersecurity.
