Q&A: Cybersecurity breaches: How can companies fight back?

We are constantly being reminded by the media that cybercrime is on the increase. With so much focus on the subject it’s difficult to avoid taking a knee jerk reaction to understandably avoid being the next media story. This is not something new – threats have been with us for some time, it is the changing nature of the threats that have brought cyber security to the forefront of the people’s minds and the press and governments.

Also the nature of the threat that includes a social element, from the internal cleaner spending too long in an office to the low level infiltration over months if not years not looking to raise alarms.

There are though practical steps that companies can take to create a rational, proportional approach to the cyber threat.

The first point of discussion for any company has to be to understand the threat landscape and how it affects their business. The way we work and the tools we use such as our phones and social networking platforms give us increased flexibility and faster access to information but this can come at a price in terms of security.

Ironically the efforts organisations have invested to protect their perimeter defences, by rigorously patching PC platforms and application vulnerabilities, have only encouraged criminals to look for other points of weakness such as exploiting smart phones, tablet computers and other mobile devices.

Companies now face a blended threat that requires informed and persistent counter measures. Cybercrime cannot be tackled effectively by reviewing components in isolation, it has to be a joined up approach which does much more than layering in more technology. Successful organisations will also mobilise internal resources both technical experts to identify, prevent and deal with the threats working closely with business stakeholders who most closely understand the impact on the business.

Key steps to fighting back include:

• Reduce complexity and increase visibility
• Architect security in rather than adding it as a bolt on
• Deploy technology that can correlate security events and determine anomalous behaviour
• Ensure you have a response/remediation plan in the event of a security breach
• Protect your information assets – especially in relation to mobile working
• Ensure all staff are trained in security best practises, in particular with regard to data protection

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c9b9bca-985d-11e0-94d7-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1Q0GWJbwO