Digitalization is now the cornerstone of every business. Enterprises will spend $7 trillion on digital transformation by 2021! However, just as much as a business enjoys the benefits of digitalization, there is no escaping from cyber-attacks that are now fast-paced and more sophisticated.
So, we have listed down the greatest cybersecurity IT risks that organizations exploring digital possibilities may face and pragmatic solutions to deal with it.
Corporate Espionage
Companies are always curious to know what their competitors are up to. However, some companies go an extra length to access trade secrets and intellectual properties of their competition. How do they do that? By spying. Corporate espionage or corporate spying is a cyberattack technique wherein nefarious actors, on behalf of a competitor, break into essential systems and security network of a company via hacking, social engineering, malware-infection, etc. leading to embezzlement of confidential business information. It is said, 25% of all cyber-attacks are espionage!
What can you do?
Eric O’Neill, a former undercover F.B.I. agent, says: “It is no longer enough to defend and react if you are breached. Taking a ‘bad-guy’ approach is a massive step forward when tackling your attackers in the world of cyber espionage.” And how do you take the ‘bad-guy’ approach? By leveraging on technologies and identity management solutions, mandating cyber threat intelligence as a part of every organization, and allocating sufficient budgets to study and strengthen the organization’s security network.
Weak Internal Network
No matter how much time and money you invest in improving your organization’s cyber resilience, most often, the organization falls a victim to cyber-attacks due to a weak internal network that is a result of employees’ lack of due diligence and vigilance. For instance, the IT team has brilliant guidelines and security best practices to keep the organization cyberthreat-proof. However, if the employees don’t conform to the same and continue taking their call on security practices such as using weak passwords, same/similar passwords for multiple accounts, or choosing public Wi-Fi over VPN while working remotely, such negligence is enough to open doors to some massive cyber-attacks.
What can you do?
At this point, you can never have enough employee training and awareness programs. When we say employee’s negligence lead to a weak internal network, it certainly shows how important it is to ensure your employees are aware about the cyber threats, how they take place, it’s implications, and what are the employees’ responsibilities combat the same.
Mobile Devices
Acceptance of the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) culture has gained excellent momentum. According to a survey, 61% of Gen Y and 50% of 30+ workers believe using their personal tech tools are more effective and productive than those used in their work-life so organizations have started to encourage the use of personal smartphones and mobile devices for day-to-day business activities. However, the flip side of BYOD is the risk of cyber threats. There are high chances of identity theft, data leakage, and malware infiltration, clearly making BYODs the weakest link to the organization’s security infrastructure.
What can you do?
The ultimate way to take advantage of the BYOD business model without fretting about cyber-attacks is to enable stringent IT controls on employees’ mobile devices. The organization, depending on its security requirements may opt for Mobile Application Management or Mobile Device Management strategies to differentiate personal data from vital corporate data and securing the same. You may want to read our blog on BYOD security practices for better implementation of BYOD within your organization.
Web Skimming
This cyber-attack invariably affects the customers of the organization by exposing their credit/debit card and payment information. IBM researchers discovered a web skimming group called “Magecart” that infects the ‘payment page’ of the website with malicious code and steals all the payment-related information at the check-out. Major brands like British Airways, TicketMaster and Newegg have fallen victim to Magecart’s web skimming attack. Such a cyber-attack puts the organization’s goodwill, stock value, and marketing standing at a stake.
What can you do?
According to an interesting read by Forrester, your organization can mitigate web skimming attacks by regularly analyzing your website scripts, implementing anti-skimming and malware protection, and deploying bot management solutions to detect and restrict botnets.
Achieve optimal security with CI.
CI is a cloud IAM solution designed to deliver not only Access Management but also Identity Governance and Administration, Customer Identity and Access Management, and Privileged Access Management. The solution also includes business to consumer functions, unified endpoint management, personalized dashboards, high powered analytics, and business intelligence.
Drop-in a line at inquiry@crossidentity.com and talk to us about deploying CI.
