GEC NEWS WIREThere are several reasons for the cyber security skills gap and the compounding results that have significant ramifications on the state of security across organizations. The last few years have seen global cyberattacks across various industry sectors including oil and gas, banking and finance, manufacturing, etc. growing at unprecedented speed and intensity. However, despite the urgent need for security skills, organizations are unable to keep up with the requirement of cyber security professionals. And the lack of skills creates serious vulnerabilities for organizations.
Organizations need to be vigilant and prepared in order to protect their employees, customers and partners from cyber-attacks, especially at a time when cyber security is such a daunting problem. However, most of them do not have the in-house expertise and capability to implement robust cyber security solutions. This is where Managed Security Service Provider comes in. By partnering with an MSSP, they can reap the benefits of having access to a large array of security solutions and experts that otherwise may not have been available in-house.
The cybercriminal community has evolved from pranksters and organized gangs to nation-states and hacktivist groups whose primary results have been increased costs and lost productivity. Cyber-attacks are not isolated incidents anymore. The recent WannaCry ransomware attack proves that these types of crimes can transcend borders and pose an enormous international threat. Every time you connect online, you are vulnerable to the schemes of cyber criminals that are looking for their next financial gain.
Technology is clearly one of the important aspects of running a business in today’s day and age. However, along with the profits gained, the dependence on large amounts of data being collected, stored and processed across the network, servers, devices, and databases is also immense. It is therefore critical to secure this data for business continuity.
More organizations are moving into the Cloud for their business growth and ease of processes. This bring along its own set of security issues and they are struggling to secure their digital assets. The initial challenge is faced during the Cloud adoption process as different applications demand varied levels of security requirements. It is therefore important for organizations and the IT teams, both internal and external to consider the type of information and applications that are being moved to the Cloud and must be given due focus just as those being given on premise.
For security solutions to be effective, organizations must be in a strong position to detect and mitigate threats and attacks in real time. The IT infrastructure required for this is mostly out of budget range for most organizations. This has brought about a strong move towards organizations now availing of Managed Security Service Providers who are highly capable of implementing, managing and maintaining the security requirements.
Some of the essential strategies that organizations must have in place to ensure data protection include:
Disaster Recovery Planning: It is important for CIOs to ensure that a strong DR plan must assess the data elements that need to be backed-up and recovered before data loss can have a negative impact on their business. This must be conducted on a regular basis and will help to position them for faster recovery at the time of any cyber security attack or disaster.
Educating employees: Cyber security is in the hands of every employee, and, it is critical that they understand the importance of remaining secure, both knowingly as well as unknowingly. Regular training and communications enables a wider network of knowledgeable employees.
Hire qualified experts/Service Providers: In its current state, cyber security requires highly qualified professionals to tackle the needs. Hiring the right staff with adequate experience is a valuable decision. However, the constant changing needs of organizations now calls for partnering with specialized MSSP who can incorporate advanced analytics and more powerful tools for detecting, investigating, and managing increasingly dynamic threats across an expanding range of attack vectors.
