What every business should know about Cyber Security

The exponential growth in technological developments in recent years has led to a number of new opportunities and an increase in efficiency for businesses big and small; however, these developments have also brought about a number of cyber threats that have not been encountered before.

Cyber security will rapidly become business critical as more and more devices become part of the ‘Internet of Things’.

Since cyber crime is becoming a widespread threat affecting businesses, the government and the public alike (24% of all UK businesses and 65% of large businesses have been the subject of a security breach, according to The 2016 Cyber Security Breaches Survey), businesses should be wary of the loss of data, system damage and financial costs which occur in the aftermath of a cyber-attack along with the damage to the company reputation and the time spent on recovering from the breach.

There are two main types of attack all business should be wary of:

• A deliberate attack aiming to damage their public profile, gain publicity or acquire valuable data from their network (as recent example shows, such attacks are particularly efficient for swaying public opinion during elections)
• An opportunistic attack, as a result of automatically detected vulnerabilities – which can be found in basically any facility exposed to the Internet.

It is often the case that cyber criminals exploit any weakness they come across, meaning all businesses should take steps to understand the threats they face and protect themselves against cyber-attacks, which in an IT context means both physical and digital. Some of the key elements of your IT system cyber security involve:

• Malware protection – such as antivirus software installed across devices
• Patch management – regularly updating software
• Access control – ensuring only the right people have access to your network
• Secure configuration – making sure all your systems are set up in a secure way
• Boundary firewalls – putting firewalls in place to block unauthorised access

One of the biggest issues cyber security faces is the rapid turnaround of technology and the constant evolution of the types of security risks. Until recently, it has been the norm to concentrate a large portion of company resources towards keeping the most crucial parts of the system protected from the most widely popular cyber threats, while remaining vulnerable to some of the less menacing dangers.

Unfortunately, such a strategy is substantially lacking in contemporary context, where the optimum approach for ensuring efficient cyber security is being adaptable and proactive. It is no wonder then that in the current environment the global cyber security industry was worth as much as £62bn in 2015, and expected to reach £140bn by 2020.