7 Things a Leader Must Know About Cybersecurity
By Michael Gorman
As business leaders, cybersecurity can be a tedious and daunting topic. It is not complex but also threatening and most of the time you won't even know where to start. However, considering the massive data breaches and hacking incidents coming to light more often, cybersecurity has become an integral part of the success of any business.
Organizations of all sizes, small and big are at risk now more than ever. Thus, being a leader of the business, it pays to stay informed about the things happening in the cybersecurity world. From mail scams to DDoS attacks, cyber threats are causing businesses to lose billions of dollars annually. Following are the 7 most important things that a leader must certainly know about cybersecurity.
1. The rise in Online Phishing
Phishing has been around since the advent of the internet, but that does not make it any less threatening. As a matter of fact, with the increase in many internet users, phishing has become a major threat to IT security. Targeted towards stealing your business information and confidential files, the implications of online phishing can be astronomical.
As a business leader, you must know that not only your business information is at risk, but even the customer data stored on the business server is vulnerable. A good antivirus software solution is something that can help prevent phishing threats targeted towards your business.
2. Employee Awareness is Critical
Majority of cyber incidents that take place within an organization are due to employee error. Browsing malicious websites and accessing business confidential files on malware affected personal devices, are some of the reasons why cyber-criminals get access to business's servers and information.
This failure of recognizing the risk of cyber threats from the employee can cause an organization millions of dollars. Thus, being a leader it becomes important that you must educate all of your employees towards cybersecurity. Protecting organizations' assets requires a role to be plaid by everyone including the employees.
3. Hiring a Hacker Might be in your best Interest
For leaders it is important to know how to position themselves best before a cyberattack happens is extremely crucial. Having said that, the increasing number of businesses are getting associated with independent experts in cybersecurity and white hat hackers, who assist them in finding vulnerabilities in their network and systems. Hiring hackers with good intention can help business fix unknown vulnerabilities in their systems and networks.
4. Investment in Cybersecurity
With each passing year, the world has seen the rise of cyber threats and the damage that it can cause to an organization. Even after that, not many leaders are buying into the idea that investment in cybersecurity is necessary.
Data breaches on average cost about $4 million in losses, thus investing in security protocols and measures more and more critical. Investment in antivirus solution, firewall protection and awareness campaigns for employees is the way forward.
5. There is nothing as too small
Cyber-criminals do not look at the size of the business while targeting them with malware and viruses. If they recognize a system to be exploited, they will exploit it regardless of its size and volume. Being a leader, you must not deny the importance of cybersecurity only because the size of the business is too small to be hacked.
6. Skill Shortage
As a leader, if you are thinking that a new malware or virus is a bigger threat to IT security than it is not accurate. The shortage of skill and talent relating to cybersecurity experts in the market today is a bigger threat. The demand for cybersecurity expert is more than what the industry can supply today. Thus, being a leader you must put more emphasis to train in-house employees who have the intent to learn more about cybersecurity.
7. Outsourcing Cybersecurity
As the cybersecurity industry continues to grow, many different corporations and businesses are outsourcing their IT security requirements to companies that are more capable of handling such issues. If you don't have the internal resources to maintain cybersecurity in-house, it is always a good idea to outsource and take advantage of external resources. Being a leader of the group, you must know the importance of delegating activities to the right person who can better manage such activities.
Final Thoughts
Cybersecurity is the need of the hour. Over the past decade or so, it has become an integral part of the success of any business and organization. Regardless of the size of your organization, you must ensure the safety of business systems and networks that beholds confidential business and customer information. As a leader of the group, knowing the 7 key aspects of cybersecurity can help you to better manage IT security within the organization and thus attain that much-needed competitive advantage over others.