Cybersecurity is now at the heart of companies’ concerns, which do everything possible to adopt the necessary measures to deal with cyberthreats. Day after day, cybercrime is evolving, and the methods of attacking corporate information systems are becoming more and more sophisticated.
But, what is cybersecurity? Why did it become necessary? What are the main challenges of cybersecurity? What are the solutions to improve it?
Why Has Cybersecurity Become Necessary?
Cybersecurity refers to all the processes, technologies, and practices used to protect sensitive data in information systems, networks, and computer programs. This concept has become very important because IT now occupies a central place in our companies. Institutions, private companies, governments, and armies worldwide collect and store vast amounts of information.
However, much of this data is confidential and sensitive. This may be, for example, financial data, intellectual property, or medical or personal data. Indeed, any unauthorized access or exposure to this data can have disastrous consequences. Thus, to cope with the evolution of cyberattacks, security technologies must also be reinforced. Indeed, the perpetual updating of computer programs and the migration of companies to the Cloud have presented new vulnerabilities and security risks. This is why computer cybersecurity measures are on the rise.
What Are The Issues And Challenges Of Computer Cybersecurity?
Corporate cybersecurity has quickly become a strategic, organizational, and economic issue that individuals, institutions, companies, and even states can no longer do without.
Recent studies have estimated that 3/4 of companies are not sufficiently prepared to deal with cyberattacks that threaten their information systems. Thus, all organizations and companies working in all combined sectors must take the necessary cybersecurity measures to protect their information systems.
The digitization to which societies are lending themselves opens the way to new IT security strategies:
- The storage of information in the Cloud
- The emergence of the IoT
- The accumulation of knowledge
- Artificial intelligence
Today, artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into various IT security measures. Google’s algorithms are trained to take specific predefined actions in the event of a cyberattack.
According to the National Information Systems Security Agency, few companies are interested in cybersecurity practices, which could cause real damage if not corrected in time. They must call on a security company that can provide them with additional support in their security efforts.
What Are The Leading Computer Security Threats?
The cyber threat is a crime that the constitution condemns and whose weapon is a computer. The latter is used to access sensitive, confidential, or strategic information. Selling or publishing the data above is also considered a cybercrime.
Today, many types of cyberattacks can be faced. We cite a few of them.
Phishing
This security attack involves impersonating a trusted third party (administrations, banks, suppliers, etc.) to obtain personal data or bank identifiers. The cybercriminal sends emails containing one or more booby-trapped attachments and prompts all recipients to enter their instructions on a malicious site.
Ransomware
It is malicious computer software that infects computers and takes all personal data hostage. This usually happens via a phishing attack that spreads attachments that turn out to be trustworthy.
DDoS Attacks
This kind of attack makes an infrastructure or a server unavailable by transmitting countless requests until saturation. These attacks aim to divert attention and steal confidential information.
The Trojan Horse
This seemingly legitimate software aims to introduce malicious functionality into computers and install it without users’ permission.
However, we must not forget the possible risks associated with the use of the Cloud. It could also have disastrous consequences for companies’ IT security and put them at risk. The storage of information does not create chances; it is the misuse that can cause damage.
What Are The Best Solutions To Improve Your Cybersecurity?
A company’s security is deployed in two main stages: identifying potential cybersecurity risks and protecting against them. The application of suitable preventive measures is strongly advised to intensify companies’ cyber defenses. We cite a few examples.
- Adopt reliable tools: to prevent cybercrime, any company must take measures, such as authentication by electronic signature, the storage of information online, the use of firewalls, and flow filtering.
- Update software and applications: this makes it possible to correct flaws and vulnerabilities in computer applications and programs to ward off all security threats.
- Protect sensitive data: Some information is more at risk than others. It is then necessary to identify and secure them.
- Store confidential data: if this information is stolen, altered, or deleted, backing it up becomes essential. This minimizes the damage caused by a cyberattack.
- Strengthen access rights: it is mandatory to protect confidential information, both for customers and employees, with passwords that must be systematically changed and complex authentication systems.
- Establish a business continuity strategy: this precaution is mandatory for companies because it allows them to maintain their activity in a data leak.
- Raising staff awareness of IT security: human clumsiness is one of the frequent causes of IT cybersecurity failures. Training company teams in cyberattacks and best practices by a trained expert is an excellent solution for strengthening company cybersecurity.
However, the best solution remains to use the services of a cybersecurity expert who has undergone appropriate training and who will be able to respond to the complexity of all network architectures.
Also Read: Cyber Risks: The Human Factor
