NETWORK SECURITY
Evolving threats Network security is becoming increasingly important to businesses as more work is undertaken online and the number of outside threats from cybercriminals grows. Resellers have a crucial role to play in helping customers to get the right solutions for their business needs.
Security threats to businesses continue to rise, with 46% of businesses saying they experienced an attack in the past year, which is putting more pressure than ever on network security. “Businesses are currently navigating the complexities introduced by a hybrid workforce, and concurrently, the nature of threats is evolving to become more intricate,” says Mark Allen, head of cyber at CloudCoCo. “Despite efforts to enhance resilience through increased knowledge and deployment of advanced security breach identification tools to mitigate the risk of compromise, the hacker community continues to devise increasingly creative ways to disrupt organisational productivity. Unfortunately, we still witness breaches occurring, and when they are successful, they inflict serious commercial damage. “Commercial damage resulting from a fully deployed breach goes beyond the immediate costs of regaining control and rebuilding the IT ecosystem. The potential financial loss is twofold: first, through payments directly to the criminal, either as a ransom or inadvertently to a bad actor. Second, there is the additional cost associated with the loss of business during the process, as the organisation may be unable to sell effectively. “Furthermore, reputational damage compounds the situation, as regulatory requirements – such as those from the ICO – necessitate notification to clients about the breach and its resolution. Unfortunately, we are seeing instances where companies cease to trade due to the severe impact of this criminal activity.” Adam Seamons, information security manager at GRC International Group, adds that one of the big impacts to networks has come from the changes in technology. “Networks have moved from self-contained on-premises setups and many are now often distributed between cloud services and accessed remotely by external staff and resources,” he says. “Some of these
technologies have been hastily implemented due to pressures for remote work during the COVID years and pressure to integrate with essential service providers who have moved into the cloud, forcing the hand of IT teams and decision makers. “This has created complexity where traditional IT and security controls don't cut it and now new vulnerabilities and threats have arisen. This is compounded by funding and skills shortages. Doing more with less often means things are missed, badly implemented, or simply overlooked and rushed, all of which is a recipe for disaster.”
Mark Allen head of cyber
cloudcoco.co.uk
Security solutions But there are a range of technologies that can be deployed to assist businesses to stay secure. “When it comes to meeting the technical controls of an organisation, all-in- one products such as Microsoft's Defender suite, which offers XDR, account monitoring and protection, DLP and more can be quite helpful,” says Adam. “To analyse and react faster, a combination of new
Adam Seamons information security manager
grci.group
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