Why your company data are at risk and how to protect them

Cybercrime has undergone significant professionalization in recent years. Hackers are no longer mischievous teenagers or activists. Cybercrime is a real business model. An IT security incident can shut down your company. That means you suffer not only economic damage, but also reputational damage. In addition, stolen data can be highly interesting to your competitors.A strategy that protects your company data is therefore essential. Its goal is to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your data and so safeguard the continuity of your company.

Hybrid working = mobile working

The pandemic has given rise to a major increase in telework. But the trend toward more mobile and hybrid working was already underway before that. The digital transformation of organizations means that more and more employees count on mobile devices and online tools. That is also happening now in sectors that traditionally make less use of connected devices, such as the healthcare, transport, construction and port sectors. Consider for example remote health monitoring or mobile devices on which employees follow a digital schedule.

The weakest link

Your employees are often the weakest link in protecting your digital environment. Cybercriminals encourage people to share certain data, make payments, and so forth via phishing messages – for example with a perfectly counterfeited e-mail from the CEO. Or they tempt the user to click on a link that sets a ransomware attack in motion.

In addition, employees more and more often make use of their own, less well protected devices. They connect to unsecured Wi-Fi networks, download harmful apps, and so forth. That too increases the risk of incidents. So it remains important to make employees aware of the risks and point out to them the importance of cybersecurity. Regular cybersecurity awareness campaigns keep them alert.

Protecting data in the cloud

Today, business employees have access to business applications and data anywhere, anytime. They use not only the laptop and smartphone they get from their employer for this but, as mentioned, also other devices of their own. Moreover, many of those applications and data are located in the cloud. That demands a different approach to security than a business previously applied in its own, on-premise datacenter.

According to the Gartner research firm, in three years virtually all security breaches in the cloud will be traceable to an unsafe action or a wrong configuration by the end-user. It’s important to use the cloud the right way. So businesses face the challenge of addressing the security of their cloud use more comprehensively – and in particular involving users in that narrative too.

Risk management

The digital world offers exceptional benefits but is, unfortunately, not without risk. At the same time, cybersecurity cannot eliminate all the risks. So security is more than ever a balancing act. It’s about finding the right balance between innovation – for example via collaboration with disruptive startups – and your own familiar IT security. Security, these days, is primarily an exercise in risk management. As a company you decide what risks you accept, but also which ones you want to avoid and what an acceptable price tag is to achieve that desired risk profile.

Security policy

Do you want to continue your digitization with peace of mind? Then your organization needs the right strategy and technology. Asking the right questions is a smart first step:

• Do you know where all your company data are located?
• Do you store confidential data in the cloud?
• Via which devices do your employees have access to company data?
• Can you remotely block or delete company data on mobile devices?