The risks associated with traveling the vast cybersecurity landscape unprepared? It’s bound to be overwhelming. Achieving balance is essential.
Traversing a national park bigger than the state of Rhode Island? It can be awe-inspiring, if not a bit overwhelming.
Rugged yet beautiful landscapes greeted us everywhere we turned, including, notably, Balanced Rock in Big Bend National Park. The trail leading to to the rock formation was filled with scarce, dusty desert floor surrounded by piles of boulders; the path was difficult to follow if you weren’t paying attention. But the rewards are worth the careful navigation – a huge boulder balanced and suspended overhead by two others, but also, just underneath it, a beautifully framed window into the distant mountains.
Finding balance isn’t easy. The path can be riddled with obstacles and uncertain navigational turns. But the rewards are undeniable as you continue to journey ahead.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. As employees traverse the Internet to perform their daily jobs – sharing information, hopping from site to site, interacting with those in and outside of your business - it’s incumbent on organizations to structure a solid plan, and create a heightened sense of awareness for employees to navigate confidently as they interact online.
The risks associated with traveling the vast cybersecurity landscape unprepared? It’s bound to be overwhelming. Achieving balance is essential.
Need proof that the cybersecurity terrain is rugged? The 2019 Official Annual Cybercrime Report (ACR) predicts that businesses will fall for ransomware attacks every 11 seconds by 2021 (up from every 40 in 2016).
Before guarding against attacks, one must first understand them. A leading attack today socially engineering – the art of tricking people into giving their confidential information or manipulating them to do something. Below is a briefing on common methods:
While cybersecurity strategies will vary for each organization, there are a few basic building blocks that apply to any business, any size.
Understand potential security threats (e.g., downtime from ransomware) and the impact they may have on your business (lost revenue). Use this information to shape a security strategy that meets your specific needs.
The Chisos Mountains are readily marked as bear country. So we carried a bear bell, ringing it without hesitation at every sharp turn up toward the peak, anticipating a possible interaction.
Social engineering often comes down to attacking the weakest link in your organization.
A sense of awareness - anticipation for what may be lurking - for end users is a powerful defense. Employee training is a top component of a successful cybersecurity program and the best way to ensure social engineering doesn’t penetrate your organization’s sensitive information. Speak with your technology partner about a proactive and ongoing training program – one that’s beyond the monthly Powerpoint Presentation that digs deep into the nature of socially engineered attacks.
On our final afternoon at the park, as we crossed the final switchback of the Lost Mine trail, and climbed the last steeply-graded rock incline to the summit, we were gifted with our greatest glimpse yet of the vast, deeply diverse earth surrounding us. It was like seeing another world, one more rugged and unrefined than the one we were accustomed to.
Our natural earth's beauty and awe inspiring potential was right in front of us. But not before heeding a few lessons learned on the trail.
Traversing your cybersecurity landscape aimlessly? Is it time to discover balance in your approach? Start your journey by scheduling your network assessment today!