September/October 2019

More articles in this issue:

• Cybersecurity Collaboration
• Automakers and Startups Align
• AI Advances Changing the World
• Making Indoor Spaces Accessible to All
• Let-Wearables-Enhance-your-Life

As the fastest-growing business-related criminal activity, cybercrime figures are staggering. Case in point: McAfee Labs Threats Report: December 2018 found over 480 new digital threats happen every minute, and nearly half of all organizations suffered data breaches or high-tech compromises in the last year. These virtual disruptions will cost the consumer technology industry over $5.2 trillion within the next two years. Worse, studies show it’s not even hackers operating from outside your networks who pose the greatest danger to your operations. Rather, the biggest threat is expected to come from trusted sources – employees, inside operators at business partners, or other users who have an approved presence on your networks.

So how can business leaders fight back when the number of apps, transactions and online exchanges that need to be protected is skyrocketing daily? The answer lies in adopting a simple philosophy called Less Than Zero Trust thinking – where the first rule of cybersecurity is to trust no one, and the second is to not even trust yourself. It also lies in adopting both low and high-tech security practices designed to help your organization, as well as staff and partners, become familiar with exercising better security habits, and gaining greater control over network interactions.

The Low-Tech End

Providing regular IT security training for all staff members and using problem-solving exercises based on real-world scenarios is critical. It also means promoting a culture of security in which employees are skeptical of requests – especially those that demand urgent attention or warn of dire consequences – and take steps to verify the validity of these requests through official channels. Likewise, greater security can be achieved by tying multiple parties and layers of authentication to any financial transaction or user/system update. In effect, requiring two or more people to sign off on high-impact tasks allows you to minimize human error, which is the single biggest threat to high-tech security. All it often takes to circumvent security measures is one phone call to con an unsuspecting employee into revealing compromising information.

The High-Tech Side

Implementing a Less than Zero Trust framework means regularly scanning all apps, systems, solutions and devices connected to the network to ensure compliance with corporate policy. It also means regularly subjecting all to vulnerability and penetration testing and routinely reviewing user access privileges to ensure that people only have access to features and systems they actually need to do their jobs. It’s also beneficial to invest in artificially intelligent network cyber analytics tools, which use machine learning to scan networks, determine what passes for normal behavior and report any anomalies. Using them can automatically provide real-time insight into what’s happening on the system. You also gain the benefit of putting a self-improving security solution to work that can spot potential worries in a fraction of the time that IT pros can immediately quarantine or stamp out intrusions at their source when spotted.

Of course, keeping a business safe from network and data breaches is a holistic process that requires a culture of security at every level and engaging in routine activities to help you stay one step ahead. More than anything, education and proactivity are key to a winning defense, and encouraging employees to speak up when they’ve spotted something suspicious or fallen prey to a scam. The more your team works together to stay on top of cyber threats, and the tricks criminals use to deploy them, the better off you’ll be

Scott Steinberg is the author of Millennial Marketing: Bridging the Generation Gap. Visit AKeynoteSpeaker.com.