cybersecurity

Cyber Awareness Month: Embracing the challenges of increased cyber risk and using the current climate to buttress security principles and tackle pain points.

We’re coming to the end of Cyber Awareness Month, a period of time designed to raise the profile of safety and security online whilst increasing resilience to cyber threats. This being said, it feels like the perfect opportunity to broach some thoughts and comments on our own experience of cloud migration security.

For many, the idea of moving to the cloud meant a chance to change up software and fast track digital processes. Yet, the time pressure laid on by remote working meant the majority grabbed at a cut and paste approach, in the knowledge that there would be work to do in the future- bugs to fix and vulnerabilities to patch. It’s a risky approach and it’s one to tackle as we move towards more sustainable solutions.

Improve digital literacy

Don’t let security be viewed as a blocker to digital transformation. Everyone should be onboard. The dramatic shift that we’ve seen over the past year has travelled up the food chain, senior stakeholders who were previously threatened by the prospect of a digital transformation now recognise a degree of necessity. In fact, 83% of board directors recently identified cybersecurity as a top priority and yet of those respondents, less than half reported that their organisational leaders have taken serious action to improve cybersecurity during the pandemic.

With this in mind, it could be said that the appetite for better data security and digital environments exist- the desire for technological literacy is there. But, more could be done to embrace the challenge posed by educating workforces.

Capitalise on pressing issues

Use the opportunity to capitalise on pressing global issues, Risk and compliance officers have the ear of the CEOs. Governance leaders are now at the advantage of being listened to with the pandemic forcing organisations to prioritise the advice of cybersecurity individuals. As we move forward, data risk is being spoken about candidly in a company wide manner. Using Layman’s terms, identifying key security breach indicators and providing tangible results will help to get your c-suite and stakeholders onboard and behind a shifts towards risk adverse driven processes.

Accommodating remote working

Accommodating the challenges of remote working is another challenge that security leaders are being forced to confront. The demands of distributed workforces must be accounted for, with a workforce who are using home and public networks, your internal security measures must be pretty indestructible.

Disappearing physical boundaries pose a big challenge for many organisations, the fact is, we no longer check into a secure office premise at the beginning of the day. Revisiting security strategies and ensure that as well as protecting infrastructure, they are also data centric is the way to go. People need to be asking themselves the following questions: How best can we protect documents being viewed? How do you create a security protection programme that extends right down to the endpoints where data resides?”

Learning from mistakes

Someone once said, life is a series of learning from our mistakes. The same goes for your journey to the cloud. In the early days of the pandemic, there was a rush to implement work from homes strategies, no doubt corners were cut and mistakes were made. In general organisations have had to squeeze multiple stage digital transformation projects that would normally take years into the space of a few months. Suddenly a ‘that will do’ approach was good enough for projects to get the sign off.

This being said, we’re now experiencing organisational fragmentation with the purchase of random off the shelf cloud solutions and improper implementation leading to non-scalable solutions that leave businesses lacking the ability to communicate properly.

Moving forward it’s vital that those looking to move to the cloud build the best foundations possible and realise the importance of both a unified roadmap and a solution that will be able to grow and protect an organisation. If any of the above sounds all too familiar- your organisation is struggling to tackle the risks posed by changes in cybersecurity requirements. Why not give us a call? We’d be happy to find out more about your vision for a digital future.

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