1 Challenge

• “I’m worried about protecting my company from the many security threats out there.”

2 questions

• “Is it possible to keep my business safe, or am I fighting a losing battle?”
• “What steps should I take to protect my organisation?”

3 Ideas

• Implement Cyber Threat Intelligence
• Use Strong Passwords and Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)
• Educate Your Employees On Security Awareness

In the modern business landscape, security breaches are an unfortunate reality. According to IBM’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, in terms of security breaches, the U.S. is the most “expensive” country, with a single breach costing American firms about $3.86 million on average.

But if you are part of an Indian organisation and think that the above findings exempt you from such realities – think again! According to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the government agency that tracks and responds to cybersecurity threats, over 3 lakh cybersecurity incidents were reported in 2019. As recently as October 2020, BigBasket, the online grocer and FMCG retailer, suffered a massive data breach with about 20 million of its users’ accounts showing up for “sale” on an online cybercrime market. Other prominent Indian businesses like Unacademy, JustDial and SBI have also been victims of data breaches and other cyber crimes in the past few years.

This is why you need to take steps to protect your business from such threats. The costs of not doing so? In addition to losing business-critical data, you may also lose your reputation and your customers’ trust, and attract expensive fines or legal action from regulatory agencies.

Here are 3 ways to keep your company safe from evolving cyber threats and smart cybercriminals.

Idea1: Implement Cyber Threat Intelligence

Constant vigilance is critical to ensure that bad actors don’t get access to your company’s network or devices. A Threat Intelligence Service provides this necessary level of vigilance. With such a service, your organisation can quickly identify a potential cyber attack, and take necessary actions before they cause lasting damage. This then reduces the probability of fraudulent activity affecting your company’s assets, client relationships and workforce. It can also flag underlying issues and generate reports to help your organisation identify long-term problem areas, protect resources and data, and implement the right policies. These policies should be:

• Applied consistently
• Clearly communicated to all employees
• Regularly reviewed and updated
• Flexible and scalable based on the company’s changing business needs

You can also invest in special cyber insurance, especially if losses due to cyber threats are not covered under your general crime/fraud insurance policy.

Idea2: Use Strong Passwords and Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)

Passwords – which are the most commonly-used authentication mechanism – are a big security problem in virtually every organisation in every country. In 2019, 42% of companies were victims of a data breach due to ‘bad’ passwords. Moreover, weak, recycled or reused passwords were the third-most common reason for global ransomware infections.

This is why you must ensure that every person in your organisation uses strong passwords for every system, device or network they access. Weak passwords like “123456” and “password” must be unacceptable, and reusing or sharing passwords must be outlawed.

If possible, implement Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) for your most critical systems or data. MFA delivers an extra layer of protection over traditional password only-based systems. It decreases the risk of bad actors accessing your company’s assets, say through phishing attempts, social engineering, key logging or password brute-force attacks. “Passwordless authentication” and Single Sign On (SSO) are other options worth exploring.

Idea3: Educate Your Employees On Security Awareness

In most cases, people constitute the weakest link in any organisation’s security profile. In fact, 97% of IT leaders believe that insider breaches pose one of the biggest threats to their organization.That’s why if your people don’t understand the basics of security, and how they contribute to security weaknesses, your company will never be safe from cyber criminals – regardless of the security technology or tools you implement.

Since your employees are your organisation’s first “line of defence”, you can mitigate the risk of breaches through regular, comprehensive security training for every person at every level. Show them how to identify security events, and what actions to take. Include best practices that they must follow, such as not using public/open Wi-Fi networks to access their email, not clicking on links within emails from unknown senders, and not sharing their company’s sensitive information with outsiders. The training must educate them on the dangers of social engineering, phishing, malware, viruses, and any other kind of security risk that may jeopardise the company. If possible, implement a training programme where they learn in real time through practical, hands-on exercises and simulations. Also make compliance part of their day-to-day work, and publish a policy to let them know that non-compliance may lead to punishments (including demotions or outright dismissals).

Conclusion

Cyber threats are a serious problem that no Indian business can afford to ignore. But with vigilance, common sense, and user awareness, you can protect your organisation from these threats.

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