+
EDITOR’S QUESTION
IAN BANCROFT, VICE
PRESIDENT AND
GENERAL MANAGER,
EMEA, SECUREWORKS
/////////////////
W
hen you fail to take the
most basic of cybersecurity
precautions, you are risking your
company, employee and customer data.
Losing company data can cost you your job
and leaving your employee data unprotected
can cost you staff loyalty; but failing to
protect your customer’s data is even worse.
It can cost you your company’s reputation.
Sophisticated hackers can now dodge
most defences, and the number of ways
an attacker can gain entry to a system
is expanding as organisations embrace
Digital Transformation. With this perfect
storm of smart hackers and increasingly
digital companies, data breaches are a
huge issue for organisations. In fact, 32%
of organisations reported experiencing a
cybersecurity breach in the last 12 months,
according to the 2019 Cyber Security
Breaches Survey.
Without a clear security measure that
adapts to an ever-changing cyber world, you
will leave yourself unprotected from the risks
www.intelligentcio.com
associated with a data breach, including
explaining to stakeholders why their sensitive
information was compromised. A data
breach that was caused by poor cyber-
hygiene will result in public scrutiny which
will leave an everlasting dent in reputation.
The period after a data breach is often a
stressful one for companies. Resources are
spent on effectively handling the crisis, not
to mention the time and money spent on
the aftershock. These expenses include
members of the IT and security teams
improving their security solutions from a
future attack; management and HR conduct
awareness training for employees; and the
crisis communications team speaking to
customers, stakeholders and the general
public to earn back trust. The loss of
consumer trust, plus increasingly aggressive
regulators setting record fines for data
breaches should be a strong incentive for
organisations to clean their ‘cyber-hygiene’.
A good cybersecurity strategy needs to go
beyond the basics to offer protection and
support before, during and after a breach.
All departments in a business need to work
towards open lines of communication and
share responsibility to make cybersecurity
not only a priority, but a standardised part of
daily operational procedures. While a poor
cybersecurity approach can clearly damage
a company’s reputation, there are steps you
can take to defend against and minimise the
impact of an attack.
INTELLIGENTCIO
31