ALVARO'S CYBERSECURITY COLUMN

"Right now, the world has a front-row seat to what could possibly be the first full-scale cyber war in the making"

So saith the former director of the US National Security Agency  this week as reported in the media on 17th February 2022.

If you've noticed a number of glitches with government and large organisation applications this week, then it is no co-incidence that Russia is on the Ukranian border and that a cyber security defences are already being tested. 

What can you do to protect yourself?

Protecting all assets all the time is unrealistic. The rate at which security patches are released is a testament to the number of vulnerabilities introduced, found and remediated. The industry is forever adapting to attacks and incursions, and the bad guys continue to win.

This year, organizations need to focus on three priorities when addressing network device vulnerabilities:

How can businesses protect their assets from cybercriminals in 2022?  They need to start by staying ahead of threats; however, this remains particularly difficult when faced with a capable and determined set of adversaries. 

1. Configuration. Many security problems arise through errors introduced unintentionally into the device configurations and updates.  Patching software will not address this.  An essential step to maintaining good cyber hygiene is that every configuration should be continually monitored in order to prevent devices and endpoints from becoming less secure.  A good example of this is for organizations that have websites that use wordpress or other off the shelf packages, but fail to log in and add security updates on a regular basis. 
2. Automation. Detection and remediation must be automated. It requires a continuous team approach to network integrity and vulnerability monitoring to meet compliance standards.
3. Developing a comprehensive cybersecurity posture. Configuration errors give rise to security flaws.  Therefore, businesses must develop a position that recognizes incursions will occur. This is where zero trust architecture comes in. Intrusions are inevitable.  

We know that all this information can be overwhelming, that is why this March 4th 2022, IFAC's sister company BAT will give a short cybersecurity talk to be able to reserve your place, enter the following link here