Since the initial days of COVID-19 seeing a rise in digital activities globally, cyberattacks have also risen significantly. A recently published report by IBM quoted that the average attack could cost upwards of a USD4.5million, not to mention damaging the reputation integrity of the victimized organization. An example of these attacks is when Samsung was hit with a multi-million dollars lawsuit after their US consumer database was breached last February.
The reality of cybersecurity attacks and data privacy today
The looming cybersecurity threat aimed at businesses isn’t exactly a recent thing as demonstrated by Google blocking multiple cybersecurity attacks in the past recent years since the pandemic happened, with the largest DDoS attack reportedly being blocked in June 2022.
Today, companies are facing increasing cyber-attack on their IT infrastructure. With rapid digitalization at work, cybersecurity has now become a major priority for many organisations. However, many often place an emphasis on protecting their organizations from external attacks but disregard the importance of training their human workforce.
Businesses today have to understand the consequences of not implementing their cybersecurity system in an optimized manner. While there are many solutions providers to choose from, the key to success in this is educating their workforce on the proper usage of the system implemented and how to prioritize data security in a day-to-day setting. In an ever-evolving world of IT infrastructure where staff’s personal devices are being used for work purposes, organisations have to be alert on the how and where their data is being used, transported, and stored.
Getting cybersecurity done right
It was found that about 93% cybersecurity leaders in a company also did not report directly to the CEO – further enhancing the siloed communication between decision makers and their cybersecurity team. The differing opinions of decision makers and the cybersecurity team results in an improper system being set up. Many organisations set their systems and processes up with financial motivations, rather than considering the overall benefits of inter-department collaboration. This alone can cause operation breaches and potentially lead to the workforce cutting corners in ways that can compromise the integrity of work procedures and proper IT processes.
Cybersecurity training for the workforce also ensures a business is secured. Making your team at large aware of any existing threats out there, prevents them from committing mistakes that put an organization at risk. Besides that, cybersecurity leaders should have a direct reporting line to their decision board to ensure nothing gets lost in translation. This allows executives to make the best decisions that starts from the higher up all the way to the bottom of an organization’s structure.
Taking the steps to protect your organization can no longer be seen as side tasks that build upon an existing IT ecosystem. Today, the importance of data privacy and security is basically the make-up of an organization’s integrity promised to the customers: from setting up the best cybersecurity solutions fitting all business requirements, to choosing the right features to maintain data integrity, all the way to cybersecurity literacy amongst the workforce.
Getting it right is crucial for businesses today.