Virus. Malware. Trojan. These are the “computer threats” that most grew up knowing. Fast forward to the new millennium and with buzzwords like online, cyber and digital transformation, we have come to the realization that the web is the new battleground.
Due to the never-ending cat and mouse between cyber criminals & cybersecurity experts, complete and lasting security against cyber-threats is difficult to maintain. From USB drives containing malware to sophisticated brute force intrusion, the explosion of the Internet and digital transformation has complicated network and IT security in general, as it led to an increase in the number of devices to target.
It has even gotten to the point that cyberattacks are available as a service. This is alarming as according to a webinar held by the Department of Justice Office of Cybercrime, phishing incidents in the Philippines rose by more than 200% in 2020 as Filipinos and businesses shifted to online transactions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also reported that between March 15 to May 18, 2020 alone, banks lost a total of P60.6 million.
Needless to say, it’s time to adopt a proactive approach to digital security that anticipates cyber-threats. Here are our three recommendations that can help your enterprise integrate a proactive digital security policy.
1. View cyber-threats as a matter of when not if
It’s easy to implement reactive digital security solutions thinking you won’t always be attacked by cyber-threats. However, once infiltrated, the effect can be massive. According to a recent study from Sophos, 55% of the Philippine enterprises surveyed said that they needed more than a week to recover from cyber-attacks. The long period can lead to losses in the millions, and that’s not accounting for the additional losses from fines and negative publicity.
With this in mind, the question that everyone should be asking is, “When will a cyber-attack happen?” By perceiving cyber-threats as daily risks that lead to tremendous losses as opposed to rare occurrences, enterprise can now clearly assess and identify the proactive digital security measures needed to minimize the impact of cyber-threats.
Unfortunately, the irony with internal IT teams is getting their management to adopt and subscribe to IT security solutions, especially since there are significant investments and recurring fees involved. It is then the role of solutions providers like Beeinfotech PH to provide material that will aid business segments in understanding the risks to investment questions.
Beeinfotech PH has recently launched their online video series “The Datacenter Show” where the topics range from DDoS mitigation to other IT solutions and best practices. The episodes are available in the Beeinfotech PH Youtube Channel.
2. Practice cyber hygiene
Here’s another startling statistic – it’s predicted that internal incidents will account for 33% of breaches this 2021, with human error being the leading culprit. With phishing and other deceptive social engineering techniques being abundant, you must make digital security training a part of your operations. One thing to focus on is practicing cyber hygiene, which aims to maintain the hardware and software’s basic health and security through habits such as constant patching, regular changing of passwords, and recognition of malicious links.
Constantly developing the skills of your IT team to match the evolving cyber-threat methods. However, this can be expensive and may even take the IT department away from main business functions. When this happens, you can choose to outsource digital security responsibilities to a data center company instead. Data center companies like Beeinfotech PH utilize their facilities to provide multi-layered physical security to protect data. And as tech companies, they’re also updated with the latest digital security solutions and resources available.
3. Seek out cyber-threats.
Unfortunately for enterprises, the bigger and more complex their systems are, the harder it is to detect cyber-threats. Some cybercriminals may even remain undetected for long periods of time, as revealed by Marriott International back in 2018 when it disclosed details of a security breach.
You can avoid this nightmare by proactively looking for cyber-threats lurking within your network through advanced technologies such as a Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) solution. Using threat intelligence capabilities, SIEMs such as BProtect collects, analyzes, and correlates data from security events to flag malicious behavior and vulnerabilities, thereby stopping cyber-attacks.
As history has shown, cybercriminals are always updating their methods to infiltrate a network to the point that it is now impossible to fend off all cyber-threats. What is possible, however, is getting ahead of cyber-threats by applying proactive measures minimizing their impact. By constantly upgrading digital security measures, acquiring the right resources, and actively looking for cyber-threats, your enterprise can come out on top against cyber-criminals with little to no losses.