This Halloween let's talk cybersecurity

Eerie masks, pumpkins, and candies remind us of Halloween, celebrated in the month of October, which is also the National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). A whole month dedicated to spreading awareness about the virtual zombies who cause sleepless nights for IT teams and businesses at large. 

We live in a world where the line between public and private life is narrowing day by day. Smart devices that were once part of Orwell's futuristic novels have become a reality. From the Wanna Cry and Petya ransomware attacks in 2017 to carpet-bombing DDoS attacks in 2019, hacker skill sets are evolving fast, leaving businesses baffled. 

According to Ponemon Institue research, more than 77 percent of organizations don't have a cybersecurity incident response (IR) plan in place. This is alarming as individuals and businesses entrust most of their sensitive data to the internet, and the lack of a cybersecurity strategy can lead to severe privacy concerns.

Though new policy guidelines like the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have set the framework for companies to bolster consumer privacy and security, an intrusion-free digital experience might seem nearly impossible. However, proactive implementation of powerful cybersecurity tools can help tackle unexpected threats that an organization might face.

Three major steps that can be taken to ensure a safe cyberspace include:

Make cybersecurity part of your business plan

As business operations become more digitized, cybersecurity strategies should be incorporated into the business model to safeguard the interests of the organization. In order to prevent and react to issues and rectify them easily, it's critical to have a deep understanding of the structure of the organization, the role of customers, and follow a proper policy guideline.

Incorporate AI to boost cybersecurity

With the mammoth amount of data being generated through an organization's various digital assets, manually looking for data breaches and security threats is practically impossible. Verizon's 2019 Data Breach Investigation Report concluded that human mistakes were the cause of 21 percent of data breaches in 2018, which emphasizes the need for AI in threat detection and incident management. AI has already started to play a major role in strengthening the cybersecurity posture of an organization, thereby reducing the mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR) to any vulnerabilities.

It is imperative for businesses to implement AI solutions to check for and alert on any anomalies in the system. Instilling AI in your cybersecurity system will also help in producing quick and accurate results.

Use powerful monitoring tools

Prevention is always better than a cure. By proactively monitoring and communicating the health status of the digital assets to their stakeholders and customers, businesses can bring in a greater degree of transparency in the event of an inevitable incident. In order to ensure a 24x7x365, uninterrupted online presence, businesses have to monitor every facet of their digital assets for operational efficiency and business productivity. 

As this year's NCSAM ends, take note of these initial measures to ensure that you're not getting spooked by virtual zombies not only on this Halloween, but for the days to come.