As businesses improve their processes and operations with the latest digital solutions, cyber security is becoming a highly critical need.
What is Digital Transformation?
Digital Transformation refers to the ways businesses use digital technologies, people and processes to solve problems.
Digital evolutions such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud storage, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) transform our world every day. These implementations have expanded past technological devices to hospital systems and cars, for example. However, workplaces that rely heavily on digital solutions are more susceptible to hacking, which causes great damages. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts cybercrime will cost $6 trillion annually by 2021, which is double the cost of 2015. To maximize the value on digital transformation, strategic implementation is needed, which should include data protection aspect.
There are some ways to address cyber safety in digital transformation:
Protect Application Layers
MarketWatch recently reported that the cloud storage market may reach $6 billion by 2023. Additionally, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend allows employees to use their own devices rather than company provided ones.
Cloud systems are connected to the public internet, meaning cyber criminals may access the company network. Always ensure that only authorized individuals can access the cloud. Additionally, implement a solution that protects an application’s external web, mobile, and API assets to combat bot attacks. Automated bots run scripts for repetitive tasks much faster than humans, making them hard to detect. Make sure your cloud solution comes with tools that can detect an application transaction’s end goal.
Protect Against Polymorphic Attacks
Polymorphic viruses change their code via file names, compression, and encryption,which makes it hard for traditional anti-malware programs to detect. IoT devices can be vulnerable to polymorphic attacks from Trojans, bots, or viruses. As polymorphic attacks become more common, it’s important to educate employees on how to detect malicious links or attachments. Additionally, companies should consider investing in behavior-based antimalware. Behavior based methods track how employees access and use data, and automatically flag suspicious activity unlike traditional anti-malware.
Some examples of more advanced tools include:
· Web application firewall
· Endpoint protection and response
· Secure email gateways
Hire Highly Competent Cyber Security Staff
Companies of all sizes need competent cybersecurity staff to combat the ever-changing virus and bot algorithms. Unfortunately, there’s a large cybersecurity talent gap. The (ISC)²’s 2018 Cybersecurity Workforce Study found that there are about 500,000 unfilled cybersecurity job openings in North America alone and three million in the world.
Additionally, Human Resources departments can address these key issues: expanding diversity in the talent pipeline, writing quality job descriptions, and optimizing salaries based on candidate skills.
· Diversity: InfosecInstitute recently found that only 11% of the cybersecurity workforce includes women, with a 20% pay gap. There is also a pay gap in persons of color compared to their Caucasian counterparts. To combat these discrepancies,companies can partner with organizations that promote diversity as well as develop initiatives internally to do so.
· Job descriptions: Both the company and candidate must be on the same page in knowing the experience needed, project state, posture and environment. Some companies may consider hiring Include (1) what you need from the employee (2)what the company can offer the employee. Some companies may hire a professional writer to do so. Make sure to distinguish the required versus preferred qualifications, and to keep the description concise, yet enjoyable and easy to read.
· Salary optimization: Since specialized cyber security skills can be hard to find,it’s important to study average salaries and to consider matching or exceeding,based on the talent level being sought out.