How to defeat the biggest cyber security hurdles

Gone are the days when the word ‘hacker’ summoned up the image of a lone individual working from his back bedroom, attempting to access highly confidential government data.

Whilst this may still be true in some instances, the threat of hacking is more likely to come from a well-organised and effective criminal ring; in fact, around 80% of attacks are believed to come from such a group.

Cyber crime costs the global economy $445 billion each year and, in 2014 alone, one billion personal records were stolen, so how can cyber security practices overcome this threat?

Agile management

Protecting your data, network infrastructure and business continuity can no longer be left to the old fashion adage of ‘buy it, install it and forget about it’. For your cyber security policy to be effective, it must remain at the top of your agenda and be continuously adapted to make it ready for the ever-changing threats.

Face the gap

With an enormous skills gap in the sector – such that over 35% of organisations are unable to fill their security roles – the sector needs to invest in training and education to try to keep up with demand. Not only that, but the industry needs to maintain the momentum in keeping its workforce up to speed.

The source and nature of cyber threats changes at an exponential rate, and the sector must keep up.

Forge networks

Hackers have formed an elaborate network of criminal rings that use their pooled knowledge to exploit the vulnerabilities and weaknesses inherent with most of the world’s information technology practices.

By following their example and collaborating, the private sector stands to take full advantage of a similar ‘strength in numbers’ approach to cyber defence. About 65% of in-house security personnel use data obtained from untrusted and unverified sources to alert them to threat data.

Real-time visibility of ‘clear and present’ danger across the private sector would lead to more rapid breach detection and a mitigation of data losses.