In a rapidly evolving digital environment, IT leaders must understand how to protect their enterprises from cybersecurity threats and enable growth. Technology offers many far-reaching benefits that can help business leaders feel safe, but poorly leveraged technology can impact growth opportunities and undermine security.
By focusing on compliance requirements, closing security gaps, and leveraging AI tools, IT leaders can address both old and new challenges and smoothly adapt to a rapidly evolving technology environment.
Solutions Architect at Espria.
Cyber Security Cycle
The cyber threat ecosystem is as dynamic as it is dangerous, with cybercriminals constantly developing new ways to defeat security measures. While industry experts advise businesses to have proven backups in place and not pay the ransom if they fall victim to an attack, many organizations are seen relying on insurance to pay the ransom.
While cyber insurance is not the sole cause of the rise in ransomware attacks, it is contributing to the persistence of the problem rather than making it go away. In fact, it could be avoided entirely if IT leaders took more effective preventative measures. Understanding these threats is key to developing a strong cyber defense strategy.
Often referred to as the weakest link in security, the most prominent cyber risk comes from employees. According to a recent Mimecast report, 74% of breaches are caused by human error, email remains the number one attack vector, and online collaboration tools like Google and OneDrive can be potential entry points for malicious organizations.
These gaps still need to be addressed. Therefore, it is important not only to regularly update and monitor security protocols, but also to identify at-risk individuals and provide better training to raise their security awareness. For businesses looking to build a cyber-resilient environment, a well-trained workforce can make a big difference.
Businesses should also implement automated security measures to detect and block suspicious activity, which is essential when sharing sensitive documents. Such risk management processes enable organizations to identify, protect against, and withstand cyber attacks.
Compliance and security are two sides of the same coin
Many companies downplay the importance of compliance and mistakenly believe that compliance leads to less attention to security, but compliance and security go hand in hand. While some violations are malicious, most are accidental and occur when employees do not follow established company policies and procedures.
The most obvious consequences of non-compliance are financial penalties and inability to trade, but other, more far-reaching consequences can impact many aspects of your business. A cybersecurity breach can permanently damage your company's reputation and lead to a loss of trust from your customers. Have their personal information been compromised? Should customers withdraw their trust?
Rather than focusing solely on traditional cybersecurity threats, businesses need to think about anticipating and recovering from cyber attacks. Having a compliance framework in place can help them achieve this, including having an Incident Response Plan (IRP) in place.
Ensuring the right frameworks are in place allows organizations to enforce procedures for employees to follow, reducing the likelihood of breaches and protecting data, reputations and finances.
However, because cybersecurity threats are constantly changing in nature, applying this protection requires more than a “guess-take” approach. Avoiding attacks requires constant vigilance. Mandating regular assessments and vulnerability testing allows companies to identify and address areas of weak protection and continually update their security framework while improving their security posture.
Ensuring AI is aligned with strategy and goals
Another fundamental problem facing enterprises in 2024 is ensuring that their use of AI is aligned with their overall strategy and goals. Not all AI will be specifically tailored to each enterprise's requirements, so it's critical to choose a solution built to enhance existing business operations. Otherwise, IT leaders risk creating further disruption in an increasingly complex ecosystem.
AI and other buzzwords may be just that, buzzwords. Therefore, it is important to take a step back and evaluate your business needs and security requirements when selecting the best solution. The focus should not be on whether the solution is the latest technology on the market or AI-enabled, but on the solution that best suits your specific business needs.
There are two ways to approach artificial intelligence. The first is to leverage the technology to make informed decisions. By analyzing large data sets and finding patterns, AI can help improve operations and make predictions based on that data. The second is that AI can be used to automate routine tasks, including security, reducing the cognitive load. This allows businesses to significantly reduce human error, improve accuracy, and increase overall efficiency.
Without the right AI solution, IT leaders risk creating more friction and impeding workflow. Therefore, the solution chosen must integrate with workflow and streamline existing processes. Used correctly, AI tools can help businesses do more with less and empower employees to achieve greater results with less energy.
As data becomes increasingly important and of greater value to your business, oversight of how it is handled and protected is essential to ensure long-term prosperity. A fragmented business ecosystem can create problems, but addressing compliance and security concerns early on can help provide your employees with an innovative, security-conscious work environment.
With the added benefit of solution-oriented AI tools, businesses can improve productivity, efficiency, and potential cost savings.
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