Category: Cyber Resilience

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Cyber Resilience

What is Cyber Resilience and How to Improve It?

What is Cyber Resilience and How to Improve It

In today’s digital world, where everything from communication to commerce happens online, safeguarding our information and systems from cyber threats has become a top priority. Cyber resilience, a crucial aspect of cybersecurity, empowers individuals and organizations to withstand cyberattacks and swiftly recover from any potential damages. In this blog, we will explore the concept of cyber resilience, understand its significance in protecting our digital assets, and delve into practical and straightforward strategies to strengthen it. Most importantly, we will look at the ways of improving cyber resilience.

 What is Cyber Resilience?

Imagine cyber resilience as the superhero cape that shields us from the constant barrage of cyber threats. It goes beyond conventional cybersecurity practices, which primarily focus on preventing attacks, by emphasizing preparedness and the ability to bounce back when an attack occurs. Cyber resilience is akin to a safety net that ensures we don’t fall too hard, and if we do, we can quickly get back on our feet.

The Importance of Cyber Resilience

Living in a digitally interconnected world exposes us to a wide range of cyber threats, such as data breaches, ransomware, and phishing attacks. The repercussions of these attacks can be severe, leading to financial losses, reputational damage, and compromised personal information. Cyber resilience acts as our digital armor, helping us minimize the impact of these attacks and maintaining our ability to continue our online activities securely.

Benefits of Cyber Resilience

  • Minimizes financial losses from cyberattacks: Cyber resilience measures reduce the impact of cyber incidents, saving money and resources.
  • Ensures business continuity during incidents: Organizations can continue operating smoothly even after cyberattacks, preventing disruptions.
  • Protects reputation and builds trust: Strong cyber resilience fosters confidence among customers and partners, preserving a positive image.
  • Helps meet regulatory requirements: Compliance with cybersecurity regulations is achieved, avoiding penalties and legal issues.
  • Secures personal information from theft: Sensitive data remains safe from cybercriminals and identity theft.
  • Strengthens national security: Robust cyber resilience enhances protection of critical infrastructure and government systems.
  • Boosts employee morale and confidence: A proactive approach to cybersecurity reassures employees and promotes a secure work environment.
  • Enables innovation and digital transformation: With cyber resilience in place, organizations can adopt new technologies confidently.
  • Encourages collaboration against threats: Information sharing and teamwork lead to more effective cyber defense.
  • Adapts to evolving cyber risks: Cyber resilience strategies evolve to address new and emerging threats effectively.

 Ways of Improving Cyber Resilience

1. Prioritize Cybersecurity Education and Training

Knowledge is the first line of defense in cyber resilience. Individuals and employees should undergo regular cybersecurity education and training to understand the latest threats, recognize phishing attempts, and adopt secure online practices. By empowering people with knowledge, organizations create a proactive culture that actively identifies and responds to potential cyber risks.

2. Develop and Test Incident Response Plans

Having a well-defined incident response plan is vital in cyber resilience. Organizations should create comprehensive plans detailing how they will respond to various cyber incidents. Regularly testing these plans through simulated exercises ensures that employees are familiar with their roles and the organization’s response can be executed efficiently when a real attack occurs.

3. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA adds an extra layer of security to online accounts and systems. By requiring users to provide multiple forms of identification, such as a password and a one-time code sent to their phone, MFA significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access. Implementing MFA is a simple yet highly effective way to bolster cyber resilience.

4. Regularly Update Software and Security Patches

Cyber attackers often exploit known vulnerabilities in software and applications. Keeping all systems and software up to date with the latest security patches is essential in closing these loopholes and reducing the risk of successful cyberattacks.

5. Conduct Regular Cybersecurity Audits and Risk Assessments

Regular cybersecurity audits and risk assessments help organizations identify potential weaknesses in their systems and processes. By understanding their risk exposure, organizations can implement targeted improvements and proactively address potential vulnerabilities.

6. Encrypt Sensitive Data

Data encryption is like placing sensitive information in a secure vault. Encrypting data renders it unreadable to unauthorized users, even if it is intercepted during transmission or stolen. This adds an extra layer of protection, especially for sensitive information such as financial data and personal records.

7. Backup Data Regularly and Securely

Data backups serve as a safety net in case of cyber incidents like ransomware attacks. Regularly backing up data and storing it securely, either offline or in the cloud, ensures that critical information can be restored in the event of data loss or corruption.

8. Foster a Cybersecurity-Aware Culture

A strong cybersecurity culture is like having an army of vigilant defenders. Encourage employees and individuals to report suspicious activities promptly. Reward proactive cybersecurity behavior and create a supportive environment that encourages cybersecurity awareness.

9. Collaborate and Share Threat Intelligence

Information-sharing and collaboration among organizations and cybersecurity communities can help preemptively identify and address emerging cyber threats. By pooling resources and intelligence, the collective ability to combat cyber risks is strengthened.

10. Continuously Improve and Adapt

Cyber threats are constantly evolving, so cyber resilience strategies must also adapt. Organizations should continuously monitor and improve their cyber resilience posture, stay informed about new threats, and update their defense mechanisms accordingly.

Conclusion

Improving cyber resilience is not a one-time effort; it is an ongoing commitment to protect our digital assets and personal information. By prioritizing cybersecurity education, implementing robust incident response plans, and employing security measures like MFA and data encryption, we can strengthen our defenses against cyber threats. Continuous improvement, proactive risk assessments, and fostering a cybersecurity-aware culture are essential in building a resilient digital future. Let’s unite in our efforts to enhance cyber resilience, and together, we can create a safer and more secure digital world.

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Cyber Resilience

8 Mistakes That Threaten Your Cyber Resilience

girl thinking and asking what threats your cyber resilience

Did you know? 30,000 websites are hacked a day while 62 data incidents take place every second. 69% of enterprise security executivesadmitted that their data was stolen by “insiders”. Even worse, 4 out of 5 victims [of a breach] don’t realize they’ve been attacked for a week or longer.

These statistics are quite scary. Isn’t it?

In this scenario, you can’t solely rely on your antivirus to prevent data breaches. cyber resilience is constant process, where you need to alert against the latest threats.

Cyber resilience specialists are tired of losing ground to hackers, so they’re collaborating with members of their firms’ C-suites and boards of directors to implement a strategy called cyber resiliency, which some believe is more feasible than prevention.

Even amid a crisis, resiliency means a company can continue to produce the desired goal. It combines information security, business continuity, and resilience to create a cyberattack-resistant corporation.

In this blog, we have come up with six common security mistakes you should avoid to safeguard your cyber resiliency.  

Using Weak or Simple Password:

a notebook which has some passwords shown which are too weak and can be hacked easily

Using a strong password is the basic lesson of cybersecurity. However, many businesses use simple and easy to remember passwords like 1234, ABCD or date of births. Sadly, these passwords are easily cracked by modern software.

According to one report, over 80% of data breaches are caused by weak passwords or stolen passwords.

One study claims that 24 Percent of Americans use easy to remember passwords have experienced hacking and password stealing. 123456, QWERTY, welcome, admin, and abc123 have been listed as the “worst and terrible” passwords by Splash.com in its study.

Therefore, you need to make your password bit complicated by using numbers, letters and special characters. See if your systems are compatible with advanced authentication techniques like retina scanning or fingerprint scanning.

Lacking Employee Training:

Human error accounts more than 90% of the data security incidents, according to a report by IBM. 

The errors your management or employee may make are sharing passwords, sending the data to wrong person, falling for phishing scheme, allowing accounts with no ownership to exist, and letting anybody using the devices on the business’s system.

Remember, your all security measures are of no use unless your employees are aware of cybersecurity. You can educate them on cybersecurity by….

  • Conducting regular cyber security and training sessions
  • Planning and implementing robust security policies
  • Testing their knowledge about cyber security more often
  • Alerting them to the dangers of hacking

Not Upgrading Your Software Regularly:

Do you ignore or close the messages reminding you about upgrading the software? Allowing software updates is an important thing to reinforce your cyber security. These updates keep your computer safe as they fix the bugs deployed by the hackers for getting a remote access of your system without your knowledge. If you don’t upgrade your software, your system is prone to viruses, malware and other types of attacks.

Relying Solely on Antivirus:

a girl using laptop in which antivirus is activated

In today’s threat landscape, anti-virus technologies are not enough to thwart persistent and advanced cyber-attacks.What can be good example of this when a popular antivirus brands failed to identified the infamous 2013 attack launched by Chinese hackers on the New York Time. Most of the traditional antiviruses are not effective enough to prevent sophisticated attacks. And the dated technology of your antivirus won’t deal with the new viruses created every day.

In this scenario, you can do is to update your system often to minimize the spectrum of attacks.

Not Taking Your Data Backup:

It is important that you back up your data. Having an offsite backup option will help you retrieve the data after cyber-attack or other IT disaster. Cloud storage is an effective and convenient way to store and access your data on a daily basis.

Focusing Only on Critical Servers:

Businesses generally are not aware of the interconnectedness of networks. This is why they don’t realize that only focusing on critical servers may create a route for hackers to other devices or network that are less or no secured. Even a malicious access to your employee’s laptop can pose a threat to your entire network.

To avoid such loopholes, you should cover each part and devices of your network.

Not Implementing a Comprehensive Threat Model:

Simply put, a risk assessment of digital threats is required. It is highly recommended that a team comprised of representatives from the IT department, business units, and higher management collaborate to develop a security-threat model for the company, keeping in mind the following points:

  • What would an assailant hope to accomplish?
  • What is the most straightforward way for an attacker to accomplish this?
  • What are the dangers, how serious are they, and how likely are they?

An accurate threat model allows IT professionals to put security measures in place where they are most needed, rather than wasting resources.

Not Opting for a Cyber-security Audit:

It’s important to conduct penetration tests at least once a year, as new weaknesses are found and new attack vectors are developed all the time. And, as soon as possible, fix identified weaknesses.

A security audit can help you determine whether your business and technology processes face any cybersecurity challenges or hazards.

A cybersecurity audit is a thorough examination and analysis of your company’s IT infrastructure. It detects threats and vulnerabilities, highlighting weak links and high-risk practices. It is the most used way for determining conformity. It is used to assess something (a firm, system, product, etc.) against a set of criteria in order to ensure that the requirements are met.

You can select the best cybersecurity services firm to examine your organization’s security strengths and weaknesses after you understand the need of an IT audit.

While these are frequent blunders in cyber resilience, there are methods you can take to strengthen your defenses against hackers. Multi-factor authentication, continuous monitoring, and secure access service edge (SASE) are some of the tools that can help you avoid a compromise. Contact us to learn more about utilizing the best technologies for cyber resilience.

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Cyber Resilience

What is Cyber Resilience? How to Build It For Your Business?

What is Cyber Resilience? How to Build It For Your Business?

Cyber security has become a major concern in today’s digital age, with technology and cyberspace playing an integral role in the day-to-day activities of companies and individuals alike.

Thus, it is important to ensure that your business is not just resilient to cyber risks but also prepared to mitigate them successfully in the event of an attack or breach.

This blog post provides an overview of cyber resilience and its importance for your business along with steps you can take to improve your company’s preparedness against cyber threats.

Why Does Your Business Need Cyber Resilience?

Why Does Your Business Need Cyber Resilience?

As today’s businesses become more dependent on technology, cyber resilience becomes increasingly vital. Cyber threats are also becoming ever more frequent, so it’s important to have an up-to-date approach that focuses on prevention, detection, and recovery. Cyber Resilience refers to the ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from cyber incidents.

The term has become common over the years because traditional cyber-security practices are no longer useful to protect businesses from costly attacks.

Cyber resilience helps you plan and protect against cyber risks, protect against and minimize the impact of attacks, and ensure productivity despite an attack.

Understanding the Difference Between Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience

Cybersecurity and cyber resilience are often used interchangeably. But they are two different practices. Cybersecurity aims to reinforce an organization’s defenses to prevent cybercriminals and malicious programs from breaching its network, data, and IT system.

It covers strategies and actions to keep threats at bay and protected company data from theft, loss, or damage.

While cybersecurity is a vital part of the security strategy of any organization, you never know when your data falls for any cyber attack. Enter cyber resilience. Cyber resilience is a more serious approach, including creating solutions and clearly defining the actions that are to be implemented when cybersecurity fails.

It is a comprehensive concept encompassing business continuity, protecting important processes, identifying a potential threat, managing threats and mitigating the severity of attacks, and incorporating procedures to resist cyber-security incidents. Cyber resilience lets you continue normal business operations without any disturbance during and after cyber attacks or technical failures. 

How to Build Cyber Resilience For Your Business

Identify Cyber Vulnerabilities in Your Network:

In addition to protecting information like customer data, financial records, and trade secrets, it’s important to think about which systems within your organization might be most vulnerable.

For example, if hackers gained access to one of your manufacturing facilities they could sabotage production lines or even destroy inventory. Identifying where vulnerabilities lie is crucial in developing an effective cyber resilience strategy that includes preventative measures, as well as contingency plans, should disaster strike.

Simply put, the best way to defend against these attacks is to identify vulnerabilities in your network before an attack happens.

By knowing what’s at risk, you can take steps to prevent cyberattacks from occurring. A good place to start is with a vulnerability assessment of your network.

This will help you find any holes that could put your company at risk of a cyberattack.

Create an Action Plan to Reduce Risks:

Cyber-attacks have become a more pressing concern over recent years. It’s not hard to understand why.

Nearly every major company has been affected by some form of cyberattack, from Target to Home Depot to eBay.

This makes it clear that cyber attacks can be detrimental to any business, no matter how big or small they are. If you want your business to be able to weather a cyberattack, whether it be information theft or security breach, you’ll need effective risk management practices or an action plan in place in order to ensure your company stays protected.

In this context, below are some concerns you should consider in your action plan.

What risks are you willing to take? Which threats do you find acceptable? And what has to be protected above all else? What data must be protected at all costs? Is anything truly not expendable if it falls into wrong hands? Where would you draw that line? Or, to ask it another way: If sensitive data was leaked or stolen, would anyone notice, let alone care?

Promote Awareness and Training:

Can you tell what is the weakest cyber-security link a hacker can exploit?

For example, it is your employee who can share the passwords or lose their laptop or devices containing sensitive information.

And it has become quite common that people tend to open malicious emails despite knowing that it could be risky. Those errors can be costly. You should not wait until an incident happened to invest in.

That’s why it is important to train your employees over cyber-security. It will help them identify the risks as well as what to do in case those risks occur.

As you continue to train employees about cyber resilience, keep track of what works and what doesn’t so you can create more effective training sessions down the road. A good way to do that is through surveys after each session where employees rate their level of understanding about different topics (on a scale from 1–5).

This will help identify which topics need more attention than others. So you must have understood cyber resilience and how to deploy it for your business. If you are looking for a serious cyber resilience approach, you can get in touch with our cyber security experts offering professional cyber resilience services.