CyberCom | Digital Forensics Experts

By Professor Danny Myburgh

While not all employees can work from home, most knowledge workers are expecting a hybrid working environment going forward, split between working from home and working from the office.

While businesses have had over two years to set up secure networks that support virtual workforces and edge computing, the reality is that cybersecurity has never been more important, or businesses more at risk from cyberthreats.

Cybercriminals capitalised on the pandemic, with ransomware attacks growing by 62% between 2019 and 2020, and 134% from 2020 to 2021. There is no reason to believe that these threats will begin to diminish. If anything, cybercriminals have become the new organized crime – it’s low risk, high-tech, global and highly lucrative and every business across the world is at risk, particularly in South Africa, which has the third-highest number of cybercrime victims of any country in the world, according Accenture’s Insight into the cyber threat landscape in South Africa.

Virtual workforces and cyberbreaches

Most security breaches are not the result of malicious intent on behalf of employees. The problem is that every home device or wireless connection is a potential entry point for hackers and phishers.

What steps should companies take to safeguard against these risks?

While every organisation should be conducting risk assessments, asset and software compliance assessments, vulnerability assessments and information risk and cyber threat research, the reality is that cybersecurity extends beyond a Security Operations Centre (SOC) or the firewalls you have in place. Everyone in the business has a role to play in preventing cyberattacks.

How businesses can respond

It’s important that your employees are empowered and protected, and that requires the right technology and software solutions.

As business leaders, it’s essential that you set clear cybersecurity expectations for your employees, implement new policies and invest in cloud-based technologies that are secure and support remote working.

Here are three critical recommendations for business leaders:

  • Educate yourself. Understand the threats that your organisation is facing. Work with security teams and experts in the field to understand what the world’s largest software providers are predicting and tracking. Prioritise the protection of your company’s most sensitive information and business-critical applications.
  • Provide clear guidance to your employees. Your hybrid workforce policies should include clear, easy-to-follow steps that help employees to make their own home-based offices secure. Introduce clear lines of communication and encourage employees to ask questions if they are unsure about anything. Install a firewall that protects your network from the various devices connecting to it from both the office and home offices (not to mention cafes and anywhere else your employees are logging on).
  • Invest in the right security capabilities. Most software platforms have extensive security features, but they may need to be activated, and your organisation might need an IT vulnerability assessment. Extend all of your security capabilities to your organisation’s extensive home network.

How individuals can respond

Here are five tips for individuals that your business can formalise and include in training:

  • Maintain good password habits. Use complex passwords and multifactor authentication where possible, and frequently change your passwords.
  • Update your systems and software. Large software companies invest billions in combating the most up-to-date cyber threats. Cloud-based applications and software frequently release patches in their updates as a result. IT departments ensure that regular updates take place, but individuals are not always as fanatical with their personal devices. According to Cyanre, Cybercom’s digital forensics partner, in 43,5% of South African cyber breach cases, easily guessable passwords were the cause of the breach, even though clients had enforced complex password policies. Once the breach had occurred, the threat actors were allowed extensive and easy lateral movement across the network.
  • Secure your WiFi access point. To avoid potential attacks through other devices connected to your WiFi, change your default settings and passwords.
  • Don’t mix personal and work. Enforce a policy that ensures personal devices are not being used for business reasons. Warn employees to be more careful about their downloads as well – if they wouldn’t install a service on their work device, they shouldn’t install it on their personal devices.

How Cybercom can help

Cybercom offers a range of solutions to protect our customers against new and evolving threats. Our experience in information risk management, knowledge of multiple regulations, and project experience with large organisations across Africa, enables us to design and implement appropriate solutions to meet your security and compliance requirements. This includes:

Data protection

  • Identity access management
  • Governance, risk and compliance
  • Mobile device management
  • ISO 27001 Certification

Business continuity and disaster recovery

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