The evolution of innovative and disruptive technologies, shifting work trends, and customer demands for omnipresence and flexibility have propelled the digital transformation of business models. The world itself has been transformed into a densely interconnected one. Technologies such as the cloud offers rapid deployment, flexibility, scalability, reduced operating costs, and a faster time to market.

Cyber risks are evolving

Besides the obvious benefits for businesses, cyber technologies have created never seen before security risks and challenges, that organisations need to confront sooner than later. The evolution of technology has evolved and expanded the cyber risks to such an extent that, according to the World Economic Forum, they are the second most important risk factor to business, next only to the climate crisis.

Cyber risks are growing for two reasons – lack of a security-by-design approach to building and deploying new products and services, such as the case with connected IoT devices, and the complexity of securing the expanded business landscape. Complexity is the enemy of effectiveness and robustness, leading to vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, gaps in protection control, unknown or rogue assets.

At the same time, criminality is evolving. Criminals are employing new ‘business models’ taking advantage of the same technologies that empower digital transformation. The ease of accessing and transforming technology into adversarial weapons – even without advanced skillsets – has created a new criminal ecosystem. Attackers are using Crime-as-a-Service, advancing their potentials and capacities to infiltrate almost every corporate network, avoiding in place security controls to move laterally undetected and compromise or exfiltrate sensitive data or intellectual property.

The impact of breaches is growing

This has expanded the attack and threat surface of businesses. Organisations seem to have engaged in an arms race in their quest to act faster than cybercriminals and protect their assets and resources. Cyber risk management and cybersecurity have emerged as essential components of securing the success of businesses. As the motto goes “it is not if, rather when you will get breached.”

Securing your digital assets and data becomes even more important if you consider the impact of data breaches. When breaches happen, organisations stand to lose a great deal; not just the tangible, valuable data that is stolen, but also the trust of all the people they do business with, especially customers and suppliers. The cost of a single data breach sprawls well beyond the time required to remediate the incident. The affected company must halt all their business processes to mitigate damage, restore systems, recover data, compensate victims, prepare for litigation, face the media, and rebuild the damaged trust. This costs money and time, taking the company and its people away from day-to-day operations, thus further affecting revenue and future sustainability.

How to minimise the impact

The best way to avoid breaches is to keep the threat actors out. This means fully understanding the risks they pose, the methods they use, and the techniques and skills you need to deny them entry. In addition to tools, time and resources must be dedicated to regular training of all people connected to the company. Learn how you can minimise the impact of breaches by reading our whitepaper.