The crucial link between cybersecurity strategies & digital survival

In the modern digital landscape, the risk of cyberattacks has become a pressing concern worldwide, especially for firms handling sensitive data. This has been reflected in some insurers' reluctance to offer cyber insurance, citing this threat as an 'Act of God'. As the frequency and complexity of cyber threats continue to rise, it is crucial for firms to implement policies and procedures to tackle the threat.

There are several cyber threats that firms are faced with, including but not limited to:

• Phishing attacks: This is the most generic form of social engineering attack. The attackers pretend to be a trusted source to solicit information.
• Ransomware attacks: The attackers exploit a vulnerability, commonly via email, to install software that encrypts data and resources, holding them hostage until a ransom is paid.
• Denial of Service attacks: Attackers attempt to overwhelm systems to make them unusable.
• Insider threats: These are threats posed by individuals such as employees or vendors.

There are plenty of practical tools that can mitigate the risk of these cyber threats and most businesses would already have them in place. According to Microsoft's Digital Defence Report 2022, basic measures like multifactor authentication are effective against 98% of attacks.

However, many businesses do not have an overarching cybersecurity strategy. This type of strategy is a high-level plan for securing assets, as well as responding to attacks and ensuring your business can recover and is not incapacitated by a cyberattack.

Useful information and cybersecurity frameworks are available, such as ISO 27001 or the US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST cybersecurity framework helps businesses of all sizes better understand, manage and reduce their cybersecurity risk and protect their networks and data. The framework has five key functions:

1. Identify: An understanding across the organisation of cybersecurity risks to systems and resources
2. Protect: The development of appropriate measures and tools to ensure continuity of services
3. Detect: The implementation of processes to identify potential or actual cybersecurity incidents
4. Respond: The development of procedures to enact in the event of a cybersecurity incident
5. Recover: The measures put in place to ensure a level of resilience to a cyberattack and allow for a restoration of services in the event of a disruption

Having appropriate risk management, cybersecurity and overall information security policies and procedures in place is crucial to businesses of all sizes. A cloud-based solution may sound impressive and necessary for your business to adapt to the ever-changing digital environment, but ensuring that you have a robust infrastructure, automated data backup systems, disaster recovery strategies and the ability to scale and be flexible in your resourcing is critical to your stability in the digital world.

Proactively addressing cybersecurity risks and leveraging cloud computing to fortify your defence is of utmost importance to your digital survival.

In conclusion, our unwavering commitment to the safety of our systems, data and digital infrastructure forms a critical element of our IT operations, reflecting our dedication to ensuring the safety and security of our clients data. With a robust and comprehensive range of policies and cutting-edge infrastructure, we stand as the trusted partner to our clients.