Cyberattacks will not go away

February 2018 Cyber Security, IT infrastructure

It is an inescapable fact that in today’s digital economy, with digital record storage, every enterprise faces some form of cybercrime threat. So it is no longer a matter of ‘if’ it happens, it is a matter of ‘when’.

Andrea Lodolo.
Andrea Lodolo.

What we have learnt from the past is that hacking is becoming a lucrative business and we can only expect this phenomenon to continue to grow with cybercriminals looking for more new and innovative ways to attack companies.

So what can businesses do to protect themselves and their data, especially in the face of increasingly stringent governance regulations coming into force? Internal policies and procedures can only take you so far, and simply cannot be enforced without the appropriate technology. We keep hearing about frictionless security where security technologies are enforced, but at the same time trying to minimise the impact on users, be they internal or external.

I believe that companies have to take security more seriously and implement technology more effectively and stringently. The corporate practice of permitting unlimited access to technical people needs to be curtailed. As we have also seen, more hacks are taking place through development environments which are typically less secure than production. Here too, corporates need to implement technology on a wider scale to close all the potential gaps in their environments.

I also think we may see some pull back from the rush we have witnessed of seeing companies moving to the cloud. With so many high profile companies being breached, including cloud providers, corporates may be a little more wary to move sensitive data to the cloud.

Another trend gaining momentum in the industry is with companies creating code for applications and having a requirement to create secure code. It is becoming paramount to ensure that code is tested for potential breaches before it goes into production, and companies like Veracode are spearheading these efforts. They scan code to identify areas of potential security weakness.

Finally, I also think that blockchain will start to become a major player. It is not in itself a security solution, but the principles of how it is used and implemented may mean it could be less susceptible to the amount of traditional security measures required in systems we use today, especially in financial implementations. Many companies are scrambling to build blockchain-based systems due to the fact that it can potentially increase security across three areas, namely: reduction in identity theft, prevention of data tampering, and negating ‘denial of service’ attacks.

Although these won’t be mainstream for the next couple of years, the trend towards blockchain is accelerating rapidly and many believe this will be the next technology wave, and could well have a bigger influence than the Internet itself.



Credit(s)




Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page



Further reading:

NEC XON modernises its security operations using MDR
iOCO Software News Cyber Security
The landscape of cyber threats has evolved dramatically, with cybercriminals becoming more interconnected and resourceful. This shift has necessitated the rapid acceleration of MDR services, which serve as a formidable bulwark against the modern adversary and promote business resilience.

Read more...
Rack-mounted, three-phase online UPS
Security Services & Risk Management IT infrastructure Products
The new Eaton 93PX 15-20 kVA UPS combines high efficiency with a compact footprint, lower TCO, and improved cybersecurity to provide stable power for critical IT, industrial, manufacturing, and medical applications.

Read more...
Protect your financial assets from unknown online threats
Products Cyber Security Financial (Industry)
Malicious actors employ a myriad of sophisticated techniques, such as hacking, phishing, spamming, card theft, online fraud, vishing, and keylogging, among others, to exploit unsuspecting individuals and gain unauthorised access to their financial resources.

Read more...
Five reasons why your board should push cybersecurity ‘boundaries’
Security Services & Risk Management IT infrastructure
From a technological perspective, micro-segmentation of your IT security environment can be viewed as a way to identify, isolate and curtail the reach of any threat – even once it is in your network.

Read more...
Plan to use AI? Get your data ready
Integrated Solutions IT infrastructure
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often perceived as an intelligent system that can handle any task. However, this notion crumbles when the AI is given poorly formatted or incorrect data. You cannot simply provide a few spreadsheets or databases to AI and expect it to work flawlessly.

Read more...
Cyber incidents result in a 9% decrease in shareholder value
News Cyber Security
Aon published its 2023 Cyber Resilience Report, revealing that, on average, a significant cyber incident resulted in a 9% decrease in shareholder value – over and above the market – in the year following the event.

Read more...
Automated ransomware recovery
Products Cyber Security
Organisations can now automatically recover from ransomware attacks with the capabilities in Cisco XDR, where the company is adding recovery to the response process by including infrastructure and enterprise data backup and recovery vendors.

Read more...
NIST’s impact on cybersecurity
Cyber Security
Through its NIST Cybersecurity Framework, the non-regulatory agency empowers organisations to take a proactive approach towards managing and mitigating cyber risks, enabling them to stay resilient against the ever-evolving threat landscape.

Read more...
Best practice tips for strengthening data privacy system
Security Services & Risk Management Cyber Security
International cybercriminals are increasingly targeting South African organizations, making data privacy more difficult to maintain. A standardization expert offers insight to help combat this threat.

Read more...
AI-powered cyber protection for consumers
IT infrastructure Cyber Security
Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office is designed for the evolving landscape of cyber threats by integrating Acronis' cyber protection and secure backup solutions, combining AI-powered defence mechanisms, robust data backup, remote management tools, and mobile device protection.

Read more...