If you have kids in school, chances are they will spend a large portion of their day learning how to protect themselves online. Firms should take note and use today as an opportunity to take pause on the biggest cybersecurity threats facing enterprises in 2019. We asked IT industry experts to canvas the top enterprise cyber threats and the practices that can thwart them
Today is Safer Internet Day, a day practiced in schools around the world to try and educate children about being safe online.
Although it’s incredibly important to teach children the importance of being safe online, it’s still something that adults, particularly in the world of work, can struggle with too. The stream of online fraud, data breaches and the prevalence of insider threats proves that Safer Internet Day is something that applies as much to business professionals as it does to children.
With this in mind, a variety of IT industry experts have come together to give advice and lessons on what IT professionals need to be aware of in 2019, and areas in which organisations can make changes for the better.
Data in use
The internet was one of the main drivers for the need for encryption. Widespread access and use of the internet, first for commercial transactions and then social networking, meant data was suddenly put at risk. As organisations look to improve data safety and security, Garry McCracken, VP of technology at WinMagic’s attention turns to data in use versus data at rest.
“After a competition run by the US National Security Agency, the commercial world settled on Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for bulk encryption for the internet,” he explains.
“However, all that data in motion travelling around on the internet eventually comes to rest on a laptop, phone, server or in the cloud, so the need to protect data at rest has grown too. FDE (Full Disk Encryption) with AES is now pretty much standard for protecting data at rest, but even that is not the full story. The cloud – born out of the internet – is allowing your data to be processed on other people’s computers. That makes data ‘in use’ the next big problem to solve in the coming years.”
Nigel Tozer, solutions marketing director EMEA at Commvault complains that regulatory environments and enforcement are failing to keep pace with cyber criminals and even the grey area of ‘sharp practice’ from less than scrupulous businesses.
“This isn’t just a challenge for individuals either — organisations of all kinds are being targeted as a rich source of data or cash to mine and exploit,” he says.
“This Safer Internet Day, I recommend renewing your awareness of your online surroundings, being conscious of your clicks and careful with the data you divulge. From a business perspective, after you’ve reminded your staff to do their cyber-security training modules, maybe it’s time you kicked-off that data profiling exercise you’ve been meaning to do? Not only will your organisation be in a less risky place with regard to cyber-threats and regulations like GDPR, you might even find useful data, or make some savings by deleting or archiving redundant information.”
Taking control
Staying safe online is a concept we all think we know about – but when it really boils down to it, are we as safe as we think? Arguably, the most important asset online is your data. Steve Blow, tech evangelist at Zerto urges IT professionals to think about taking back control.
“Everything you do online leaves a digital footprint. It may seem like nothing on its own, but all of this combined creates a picture of you,” he says.