Alongside the devastating economic impact of the recent pandemic, hackers have been taking advantage of a predominantly remote workforce, launching more advanced cyberattacks.
In fact, in the UK £6.2 million has been lost to cyber scams in the past 12 months, a 31% year-on-year increase. This is having a negative impact on security debt.
Security debt happens when your organisation hasn’t invested enough in security upfront. Unable to invest the time, resources and money into patching digital threats as they arise, these seemingly small vulnerabilities become larger issues that leave your business open to exploitation.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. By understanding your security debt and taking appropriate action, you can minimise vulnerabilities in your network and prevent future attacks.
If you’re unsure where to start, here are three steps you can take to minimise security debt in your organisation.
There’s been a 600% increase in reported phishing emails since the start of the pandemic as cybercriminals look to exploit the weakest link in business security – employees.
The work from home model and unsecured WiFi networks have left employees open to phishing scams, with the rise of malicious links leading to an increase in malware and keylogger downloads.
The good news is that these risks can be mitigated by adopting a cloud-hosted desktop or Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solution. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) like UKFast can run these virtual desktops for you, making it easier for employees to securely access company data and files from any location, on any device.
Operating from a centralised platform in this way ensures improved business continuity. As both company data and every employee’s desktop is encrypted and backed up in the cloud, any device that is compromised can be remotely wiped without any critical data being lost.
The overwhelming majority of security issues are caused by old, unfixed problems. All too often, limited IT resources in-house result in routine patches and updates being overlooked. It’s inevitable that once a vulnerability is considered low-priority, it’s less likely to be patched.
If left unchecked, these vulnerabilities quickly escalate security debt, leaving your business at greater risk. But the good news for IT teams is that there’s a simple solution.
By outsourcing vulnerability management you can extend the capacity of your IT team, drive down costs, bring security expertise into your business, and reduce your security debt. Here’s how it works:
Nearly a quarter (23%) of business security breaches were caused by human error in 2020. So, once you’ve patched your old vulnerabilities and put in place more secure working environments for your remote teams, you need to create a secure culture and educate your teams on how to identify malicious activity and phishing emails
There’s no one size fits all approach, but by creating a security first culture and prioritising investment in training, you can reduce the risk of human error in the security process. If this is a new approach for you, here are a few tips on how to get started:
If you want to get started on your journey to cancelling security debt, but don’t have the expertise in-house to do so, contact us to find out how we can help/support.