There are increasing threats to businesses in the digital world. The advent of new technologies has not only brought us benefits, but has also shown us the downside of technological progress.
The National Security Authority has reported an increasing number of cyber attacks, particularly ransomware attacks, which cause enormous financial damage to companies and institutions.
Ransomware is malicious code that encrypts data (disks and, in the case of poorly designed infrastructure, backups, if any). The attacker then blackmails the victim and demands payment of a certain amount (known as a ransom), most often in Bitcoin or another untraceable cryptocurrency, as a condition for decrypting the data.
Companies are increasingly dependent on computer systems, which is why they are becoming more and more frequent victims of cyber attacks using ransomware. During such an attack, attackers block computers throughout the company along with the data base, and if there are no proper backups, the company is paralyzed and cannot continue its activities. It simply stops.
A common cause of such successful attacks is neglected and underfunded IT security, which often only begins to be addressed when it is too late and the company or institution has fallen victim to a cyber attack. The lack of experts and personnel in the field of information and cyber security is also a problem. However, great attention must be paid to educating all employees in the field of information and cyber security, not just those in the IT sector. It is often ordinary employees whose computers become the gateway for such attacks. It has been proven that human error and ignorance are often the cause of data leaks and the entry of malicious code into an organization's information infrastructure.
Given the shift towards electronic and digital transformation, we can expect the number of cyber attacks to rise. For this reason, companies and institutions should take technical, organizational, and personnel measures to reduce the threats associated with cyber attacks. First, the company/institution should conduct a detailed analysis of the risks and the state of information security. Based on the results of the analysis, measures should be taken to manage individual threats and thus reduce the risk of attack. In the area of personnel security, for example, it is necessary to define roles and responsibilities for information security and set up a training system not only for IT staff but also for ordinary employees. Rules for users of information systems should also be properly established and adopted. In the area of technical measures, for example, requirements for securing services from external networks (web applications), securing internal and external infrastructure, and requirements for securing workstations should be adopted based on the analysis. These requirements should then be adopted and applied within the company's technological infrastructure. Examples of individual measures include: security during the operation of information systems and networks, network and communication security, cryptographic measures, physical and object security, and many other technical measures to ensure information security. From a business continuity perspective, a crisis plan and recovery plan should be adopted in case of a security incident or emergency. Such a plan should have clearly defined roles for individual employees and, where appropriate, external partners in restoring the company's operations after a security incident or emergency.
Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, sophisticated, and widespread, so companies need to be prepared and able to respond correctly and in a timely manner to potential threats. Since cyber attacks often paralyze an entire company or institution, it is important to prevent these threats. Prevention requires investment not only in technological solutions, but also in human resources in the form of specialists who can use their knowledge to help prevent cyber attacks and, in the event of a security incident (such as the aforementioned ransomware) or an emergency (fire), restore the entire company's operations as quickly as possible and minimize losses.
Although the financial resources spent on protecting the assets of a company or institution in the area of information security may seem very costly, the consequences of a cyber attack are many times higher than the costs of prevention and, in certain cases, after the irreversible destruction and unavailability of data, they may even raise the question of whether the company in question can continue to operate after a serious incident. can continue to operate.
We wrote this article for Deltech.
