Articles Tagged with ''cybersecurity preparedness''

Security researchers have recorded more than 45,000 cases of ransomware in the past 10 hours alone, most of which are taking advantage of a Microsoft vulnerability. 

Being adequately prepared to respond to a data breach is an ever-changing game – new threats are emerging, new regulations are being put into place and companies must regularly re-evaluate their response plans to ensure they are applicable to today’s threat landscape. Unfortunately, many companies are not reviewing and updating their plans frequently enough – in fact, only 25 percent of companies say they update their response plans once or twice a year. Not to mention that no matter how well prepared and updated a company’s plan is, an actual live breach response can present unforeseen challenges that cause companies to stumble. 

 Many organizations protect their cyber infrastructure by looking inward, focusing on their own networks and systems. They dedicate themselves to reducing the attack surface, assessing their vulnerabilities, and conducting system patching – all to continuously monitor their own networks.  

 When looking at the cyber technology market over the past 15 years, it is evident that the catalyst for cyber evolution was Y2K. Prior to the Y2K frenzy, “cybersecurity” was masked in the systems engineering function, and external threats consisted of hackers looking to leverage free computing capabilities with very little focus on information/data access or network destruction. 

No operational discussion can start without a look at budgets, and how organizations plan for, and procure, cybersecurity services and solutions. And who is responsible for that budget?

From an executive-level perspective, the greatest shift in cybersecurity relates to the focus and the responsibility – moving from strictly an “IT issue” to one of a business function. Look no further than the Target breach and the subsequent resignations of the company’s CEO and CIO to see how cybersecurity has escalated to the C-suite. This was unprecedented 15 years ago, when the primary cybersecurity role of IT was information assurance. So why has the philosophy changed?

Forty-one percent of U.S. business leaders consider cybersecurity a major priority, compared to just 20 percent in Europe and 30 percent globally, according to research from BT.