Do Companies Compromise With Their Cyber-Security?

In a fast paced global economy that counts more and more on data carried through cyber-space, securing data against intruders becomes indispensable. However, most companies are clueless as to where their sensitive data is located, and how to secure it.

According to a study of more than 400 global and security executives conducted by access software company Thycotic, most companies need to do a better job of measuring business success and key metrics on how cyber-security investments are performing. The report indicated 58 per cent of companies do not measure the effectiveness of their cyber-security investments and performance against best practices.

Pukhraj Singh, a cyber-security expert who played a key role in the setting up of the cyber operations centre of the Indian Government after the 26/11 attacks, told BW Businessworld, “The cyber security vendor landscape is extremely fragmented. The companies are not able to derive actionable metrics that allow them to take informed, empirically-driven decisions. This problem arises from the fact that the vendors have largely dominated the public perception and market messaging; hence customers get sucked into these perennial cycles of hype and paranoia. All of this drastically increases the operating expenditures and total cost of ownership of security operations. Eventually, the customers start cutting corners as budgets start ballooning, thus introducing chinks in the armor.”

Recently, Union minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir told that a total of 50 incidents of cyber-attacks affecting 19 financial organizations have been reported from 2016 till June 2017. Hollywood movie TV channel, HBO also confirmed that the network had been the target of cyber-attack by an anonymous hacker who threatened to leak full episodes of the popular series, ‘Game of Thrones’. In 2015 as well, the first four episodes of the fifth season of the series were leaked online before they aired.

Most of the successful companies or enterprises at present are either based online or have a firm online presence and a substantial percentage of them are vulnerable to a breach in their data security. A few steps that are prescribed by cyber experts to avoid cyber space breaches include integrating external scripts as an added layer of protection, using https to avoid breaches in unsecured areas and creating awareness among customers to update their browsers at regular intervals.

Like a popular proverb of the IT sector says, ‘You're only as secure as your weakest link,’ a company must not only focus on securing critical servers but also give attention to other hosts in the network. A step as simple as not re-using password can also prove crucial in immunizing from cyber-attacks.

Thus, at a time when, cyber-space has become highly vulnerable as hackers are constantly on the alert looking for chinks in the defenses of a network, lack of preparedness on the cyber front might lead to huge losses.