Digital India needs strong Cybersecurity strategies

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This email seems too familiar, doesn’t it? Either an international investment opportunity seems unbeatable or a threat to lose your Instagram account looms ahead of you. Cyber fraud has become a common occurrence with billions of active internet users. Almost every digital channel, platform, mobile application, and technology company encounters it.

Cybersecurity must take Center Stage in India?

India registered a?290%?increase in cyberattacks during 2021, shows the Subex Sectrio, Cyber Threat report. As alarming as this figure is, the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence team?shared?that “Asian organisations are adept at identifying attacks quickly before they escalate into more concerning attack types.” The exponential digitalization of businesses in India has given rise to a digital-first consumer. These consumers prefer cashless transactions, digital payments, trading online, and shopping via social media recommendations. It’s no surprise that every organization - from fintech to the service industry, government, and SMEs - needs to safeguard its operations, customers, and data for future growth.???

The ever-increasing cyberattacks have made cybersecurity strategies and IT security protocols a high priority. Fintech firms, for one, are actively working towards investing and building the cybersecurity arsenal. Companies implement extensive security measures to ensure customer trust, security of operations and infrastructure, and data protection. Integrated DNS security for online platforms, network firewalls, multi-factor authentication, or captcha-based authentications are a given for enterprise security. What happens when your business wants to scale?

As the business grows to acquire customers, the product and service offerings expand. Here’s where C-Suite leaders need to think and stay ahead of cyberattacks. IT teams need to foresee potential cyber threats and develop adaptable frameworks across the enterprise and all stakeholders. Let’s explore this further.

Securing Processes and Systems:??

Cybersecurity investment at an enterprise level is imperative. Several organizations have digitalized their internal and external operations by relying heavily on cloud technologies. Tech-led companies are including AI tools to expand product features and create engaging platforms. Thus, exposing operational technologies to vulnerabilities. A recent?article?shares Deloitte’s report that offers organizations a six-point framework to secure and monitor Operational Technology (OT) assets. The report explains how companies must conduct periodic security assessments, develop backups and dedicated teams, and invest in infrastructure and training.?

Growing cyberattack threats on OT assets have the potential to debilitate core functions. A comprehensive audit identifies security gaps and vulnerabilities in the IT network and helps teams develop a framework.

Applying a ‘security-by-design’ and ‘resilient-by-design’ approach for digital applications and third-party collaborations is inevitable. Organizations will need dedicated threat detection and intelligence teams to constantly monitor anomalies and address them before they become high-risk threats.

Enterprises need a cyber crisis management plan, which readies business leaders and enterprise IT systems to tackle emerging threats and defines a roadmap to address various situations. It further explains the importance of training and awareness at multiple employee levels that manage operating systems. Another vital component is creating a ‘red teaming’ practice for internal systems. It enables in-house security teams to predict vulnerabilities and plug-in gaps.

Securing Data:

Data drives all businesses – small organizations or large enterprises. And both are equally susceptible to cyberattacks.?

A Verizon report shows that?43%?of all data breaches involve small and medium-sized businesses. Additionally, IBM’s Cost of a data breach report puts the average global cost of a data breach at?$4.24 million. The cost of downtime is expensive and indisputable - irrespective of the company size. Organizations need to closely monitor and regulate access, invest resources in cybersecurity in the software development phase, and create a handbook of cybersecurity protocols for all stakeholders.

Take, for example, the finance industry. The sector deals with high volumes of highly-sensitive customer data. Multiple teams need to access and process data into packets of information regularly. Data security then becomes a challenge requiring a robust cybersecurity system. IT teams across the industry are implementing defence mechanisms within systems to mitigate data-breach risks. These strategies include implementing encryption algorithms, zero-trust security, tokenization, Defense in Depth (DiD) security models, and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR).

Securing People:?

Do you know the most common password globally, and how much time does it take to crack it? According to?NordPass?2021 report, ‘123456’ is the most common password with a 100K + count globally. And it took < 1 Second to crack it. Companies need enterprise-wide cybersecurity awareness, reminders, training, and drills.

Remote working has pushed the IT teams to a whole new level of cybersecurity implementation. The Egress Report – Insider Data Breach, 2021 shows that?94%?of organizations had an insider data breach in the last 12 months. Human error is largely the cause of it. Organisations must enforce practices like strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, email security gateway, device protection, and firewalls. Thus, making these protocols hygiene for employees.

The financial sector has an additional responsibility to protect customers from phishing attacks, identity theft, and financial fraud. E-KYC and V-KYC are some of the approaches implemented by banks to protect customer data using AI tools. Moreover, banks and fintech organizations must share consistent communications on cybersecurity threats, what to expect, and protocols to follow with customers. Technology-led businesses and tech platforms must take up the responsibility of building a culture of security awareness among their customers and employees.

Ransomware, malware, DDoS attacks, credential stuffing, and phishing – as terrifying and intimidating as they sound are cybersecurity threats that can be addressed. The digital transformation from here will only intensify and put more computing power in the hands of consumers. MSMEs and enterprises must channel energies and shift focus on developing comprehensive security systems that safeguard the business and customers in the future to come.