Cybersecurity is a part of IT that is growing at a rapid pace. Most organizations are acutely aware of the potentially devastating effects that a cyber-attack could have on their business and, as such, seek to hire a team of dedicated cybersecurity professionals who can effectively mitigate the risks posed. As companies increasingly use cloud computing and combine multiple applications through APIs, effective cybersecurity is of paramount importance. The recent trends of increasing numbers of employees adopting remote and hybrid models of work (in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic) pose additional challenges to cybersecurity teams, as home networks may not be as secure as corporate systems. Today, in America alone, there are over one million cybersecurity professionals. This article explains three of the key roles that these staff play in an organization.
Proactive Planning
An organization must recognize that no matter how effective its cybersecurity program is, it can still be subject to successful attacks by cybercriminals. As such, it is important to have a robust plan of action to be taken in the event of such an attack. This plan and set of responses to an attack must be regularly tested to ensure it will be effective should a cyber-attack take place. The plan should also be regularly updated to respond to emerging cybersecurity risks and methods of entry into an organization’s IT infrastructure. Proactive actions should take place to strengthen assets and applications against potential attacks. By way of example, many companies now use application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow multiple applications to communicate with each other. The API itself can prove to be a point of entry for hackers, and as such, it is important to take action that results in securing API gateway. This can be done by ensuring that all API communications are sent over HTTPS and by using secure methods of authentication.
Education and Awareness
It is important for any firm to recognize that knowledge of IT security and the awareness of methods of cybercrime should not be limited to the IT team. All employees should have at least a basic understanding of concepts such as malware, malicious emails containing harmful attachments or links, viruses, and ransomware. Organizations should include a comprehensive IT security training package as part of mandatory training for all staff members, and this should be regularly updated to reflect emerging trends in cybercrime. When staff across an organization are knowledgeable on cybercrime, they are more adept at spotting potential attacks, and as such, the organization becomes better protected.
Managing Risk
The IT and cybersecurity team should be aware of all the conceivable risks relating to cybercrime that could potentially affect the organization. These risks should ideally be documented in a corporate risk register along with the other non-IT-related risks that may affect the company. It is important to assess the impact of every risk and how severely it would affect the organization should it occur. A risk register can provide the framework for understanding how well these risks are currently managed and where further action is needed to strengthen the organization against them or mitigate the risks effectively.
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