Securing our Small- and Medium-Sized Business from Cyberattacks
Owners of small- or medium-sized business (SMBs) often assume they are less likely than larger companies to face a cyberattack. The reality, however, is very different.
Learn how Microsoft uses ads to create a more customized online experience tailored for you. About our ads
Co-authored with Marc Finger from Scalefree and Jonas De Keuster from VaultSpeed. Technical Review done by Ian Clarke and Naveed Hussain – GBB (Cloud Scale Analytics) for EMEA at Microsoft Introduction Business users need more and more ready-to-consume data and information to support their decision-making in a data-driven organisation. Though, many of today’s systems fail
Owners of small- or medium-sized business (SMBs) often assume they are less likely than larger companies to face a cyberattack. The reality, however, is very different.
Originally a U.S.-based initiative, Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM) is now an annual international event that highlights the importance of security awareness.
In cybersecurity, the present moment is one of both opportunity and crisis. The demand for cybersecurity professionals is growing rapidly, but there are simply not enough trained professionals to meet the current needs.
According to Richard Pethia from Carnegie Mellon University, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) established the first Security Operations Center (SOC), the CERT/CC (Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center) in 1988 in the aftermath of the infamous Morris Worm propagation.
The world’s shortage of qualified cybersecurity workers has been steadily growing since 2013 and is expected to reach 3.5 million in 2021i. With the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape, the need for security experts is far outstripping supply.
Over the last year, the demand for cloud-based services and applications has dramatically increased and the need to scale pushed to new levels. We are moving away from an era where networks were clearly defined and usually specific to a certain location. Now there isn't necessarily a contained/defined network to secure, but instead a vast portfolio of devices and networks, all linked by the cloud. Cybercriminals however are taking advantage of this shift, with increase occurring in DDoS attacks, ransomware and phishing campaigns.
Cybersecurity used to be a lot easier. IT teams did their best to build a security perimeter—a walled garden—where they could treat anything or anyone in that network as secure. This classic approach of attempting to restrict everything to a “secure” network does not accommodate the modern world, where almost everyone works remotely from different types of devices, including personal phones and tablets.
Bad actors want your data. While a lot of things can happen before a user or system get to access an organization’s data, data is still ultimately what criminals want; personal information, customer lists, credit card numbers, trade secrets - to name a few.
Through the new realities of working from home, organizations are seeing a substantial increase in the diversity of devices accessing their networks. In a receive survey, due to the pandemic, 86% of IT leaders say at least ¼ of their staff are connecting to the corporate networks through personal and shared devices right now. With not all endpoints being managed, or even owned by the organization, this can lead to different device configurations and software patch levels, increasing the potential attack surface.
The way we worked evolved rapidly in 2020. Organizations around the world have adapted and embraced remote work. With employees working from home, being able to connect to any resource, on any device, inclusive of using personal devices, has become a productivity requirement to be able complete their work. In turn, IT still has the responsibility to find the right balance between enabling productivity, while maintaining control to protect critical data.
2021 promises to be a year of economic recovery across Canada. This Microsoft post offers six ways that small and medium-sized businesses can speed up their recovery.
Business owners, particularly small and medium-size business owners, are some of the most resourceful and resilient people I know.