The cloud can keep your business cyber-secure during digitalisation, writes Dominik Birgelen, pictured, CEO of oneclick AG, a cloud platform.
Where it seems the pandemic has disrupted almost everyone and everything, cyber security is no different. While the threat of physical crime may have reduced, for example, home break-ins and pick-pocketing, the likelihood of becoming the victim of sophisticated cyber-attacks has dramatically increased as criminals switch their tactics and exploit widespread anxiety about COVID-19.
Back when every UK business was forced to adopt a remote working model over-night, cyber hackers spotted a gateway for new forms of data theft. Due to poor technological infrastructure and inadequate cyber and data security software, many businesses were left exposed and vulnerable to malicious cyber-attacks. What’s more, this threat continues to grow, as new Government advice urges businesses to work from home wherever possible.
In this article, I will explore themes of increased digitalisation, where many businesses weren’t quite ready for this but how advanced cloud based software will offer the first step for businesses in keeping up with today’s digital age and not compromising on security in doing so.
It is no secret that the economy has and continues to become increasingly digital due to the COVID-19 pandemic that led the entire world to resort to online and digital alternatives to remain functional and connected. As a result, the growing cyber threat is outpacing most companies’ ability to manage it effectively. All types of data held, including employees’ personal information, corporate data, customer information and intellectual property, is at risk. While it is difficult to predict the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, it has certainly fast-tracked the digitalisation of businesses.
Cloud infrastructure offers businesses a solution when looking to keep up with the growing digitalisation of the corporate environment. For example, with an instantly available platform for application and data provisioning a central management and delivery of all resources are enabled for a workforce. Once client-to-site VPN connections are no longer required as a result of migrating systems to the cloud, there is no point of attack for trojans. Furthermore, no end device within an organisation will be able to infect an application server as the direct communication between the user and the target system can be completely ruled out.
What’s more, new emerging cloud technologies such as Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) enables all IT services to be offered in the cloud for workforces as they work from home. XaaS not only provides remote workers with advanced flexibility but ensures enhanced security due to it encompassing the likes of other solutions such as IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.
The probability of becoming a victim of more and more sophisticated cyber-attacks is increasing day by day. Therefore, businesses have turned to cyber insurance, where the demand has grown significantly worldwide in recent years, especially due to the higher risks of distributed infrastructures and increased home office and remote work. According to the latest Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2020, spending on cyber security has increased by 39% compared to the previous year. Since COVID-19, the majority of employees access computers in the company via the Remote Desktop Protocol. As a result, there are now millions of attempted attacks on RDP connections every day, because they are often insufficiently secured.
It is now advisable that businesses should look for appropriate cover from cyber insurance that assures an architecture for vulnerabilities against external attackers or malware that can penetrate the connected company networks. Solutions are now available for businesses whereby they can cut out extensive preliminary investigations that are needed with classic cyber-insurances. Furthermore, points such as the security architecture of the platform, resilience, minimum requirements for passwords, implemented rights and role concepts and multi-factor authentication will be of utmost importance for businesses as they look to strengthen their security measures, and can be achieved through state-of-the-art cloud software solutions.
Overall, the global pandemic has disrupted the way things work. In terms of digitalisation, the pandemic simply singled out the companies that were ready for mass digitalisation from those that were not. Not only must businesses now look to keep up with the rate of digital development but remain secure as cyber hackers continue to use the situation to their advantage to breach companies at their weakest areas: a remote workforce. Adopting readily available and secure end-to-end cloud software that offer advanced cyber insurances, will offer businesses of all kinds, a lifeline as the corporate landscape navigates through these unprecedented times.
