Where are we still going wrong with cybersecurity?

Despite the seeming increase in cybersecurity awareness, global corporations with massive reputations all over the world are continuing to experience cybersecurity breaches left, right and centre. Most of the time, these breaches could have been prevented and many businesses are still continuing with their heads in the sand simply waiting until it’s their time to pick up the pieces..

So here’s a list of where many of us are still going wrong with our attitude to cybersecurity:

1. Viewing cybersecurity as a short-term priority

In the EU, October is ‘CyberSecMonth’ which, while admirable in its aims to raise awareness of the importance of cybersecurity, is counterproductive as it promotes the idea that it’s somewhat of a novelty consideration. Having a cybersecurity month suggests that this is something you can get away with only taking into consideration briefly, maybe once a year. However, a more helpful message would be that cybersecurity is a full-time job and needs to be viewed as a priority throughout the year. Businesses that fail to make permanent changes will be doomed to fail and that failure could come at the expense of their customer’s security.

2. Failing to plan for the future

It’s not good enough to act responsively to cybercrime. Instead, businesses and organisations of all kinds need to start thinking about the kinds of threats that could come about in a few years’ time. Building systems and networks now that can withstand future potential threats is the way forward, not simply fixing vulnerabilities in systems following a breach.

3. Regarding resilience as utmost importance

Building resilient systems is perhaps the most important way to protect a business from any sort of cybersecurity breach. As with the above point about future-proofing, instead of rebuilding what you have following a breach, why not rebuild your systems tougher in order to stand up to even more robust attacks next year, or the year after?

4. Failing to invest where it matters

Investing in the areas that are sorely lacking within your business will be key to your successful cybercrime protection. For example, skills are still a major sticking point for most of us. Investing in training existing staff and taking on new staff who can instil the right messages in your wider staff about the importance of cybersecurity will boost your level of cybersecurity protection.

A top corporate priority also needs to be awareness among all staff at all levels so that no one is left in the dark about how vital it is to protect businesses and their customers from cyberattacks. 

The solution? In order to protect your business from the ever-evolving threat of a cybersecurity breach, especially if you use the public cloud, you need to focus on taking a holistic view of your security. Our Unified Threat Management solution protects your data and your users whether they are in the office or in the cloud  - or even at home. We also offer managed firewall, VPNs and denial of service protection to give your business the most robust protection possible.