Why Cyber security Should Be A No.1 Business Priority For 2017?
By Prempal Singh
Last year was terrible for the corporate sufferer of cyber attacks, numerous large organizations making headlines over reports of major removes. Ransomware attacks quadrupled to 4,000 every day from 2015 to 2016, in line with the U. S. Department of justice.
In spite of the evidence, most companies greatly understate the risk of a cyber event, according to EY’s nineteenth Global Information Security Review 2016-17. Of the 1,735 global executives, information security managers and IT leaders surveyed, only one in five (22 percent) fully consider information security in their strategy and planning.
This pride makes little sense given the sharp uptick in cracking methods and sophistication. The average gross annual cost of cyber attacks to companies worldwide is pegged at more than $9.5 million by the Ponemon organization. Aside from the financial losses, boards of company directors must also need deeply consider the reputational damage that comes from such attacks.
“If companies are not discovering, understanding and evaluating the effect of cyber attacks, the nature of the danger will remain unknown and quiet, limiting the ability to respond on time, “said Vickie Papapetrou, director at EY’s EMEIA Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.
Recognizing Risk:
Being unaware is no excuse for undervaluing the risk of an internet breach. But according to EY’s survey, almost a third of respondents (32 percent) said a lack of executive awareness and support challenged the effectiveness of their cybersecurity planning and preparedness.
Among the other findings of the study:
1. Only 38 percent of respondents said their boards have enough information to evaluate cyber risks.
2. Nine in 10 businesses (89 percent) fail to examine the financial impact of every data breach.
3. Of the companies that a new cyber incident during the previous year, practically half of respondents (49 percent) had no idea what financial damage it caused.
This leaves organizations deeply vulnerable at a time when the danger surface is enlarging. Country states, hacktivists, criminal organizations and malicious insiders are major perpetrators of most cyber attacks and crimes. Main methods include malware, spam and social engineering, web-affiliated attacks, malicious code, botnets and stolen devices, regarding Papapetrou.
“Ten years ago, a hacker was someone sitting in a basement having fun, but now nation-states and legal organizations are recruiting and training smart people from universities, paying them large sums of money to join them in their malicious activities, ” the lady said.
Not If Although When:
Rather than understate the chance of a cyber attack, businesses must “accept the reality” that they may be breached, Papapetrou said. To plan for this inevitability, companies must identify their most important information and where this data exists. They have to monitor gain access to this data across networks, systems and endpoint devices. Other security tips include the use of threat detection and monitoring software, appropriate access levels and login criteria, and storing files in backup copies to continue businesses in the instance of a ransomware strike.
Continual and broad-based cyber threat assessments have become a necessity. “The risks are not simply within them of the organization anymore, very well Papapetrou said. “Interdependencies to businesses and third parties exist across the internet ecosystem inch.
No much longer can organizations understate their risk of cyber attacks. Refusal — the widespread confident that bad things happen simply to other companies — merely postpones the unavoidable. But fully accepting the repercussions of the cyber attack is a great motivator for your business to take action before it’s too late.
Russ Banham is a Pulitzer-nominated business journalist and author of 24 catalogs, including his newest, “Higher, ” a history of The Boeing Company.
Source: www.forbes.com