Responsibility of cybersecurity shifts to organizations most capable of reducing risk 

In March of 2023, the Biden Administration released the National Cybersecurity Strategy.  The strategy states that to achieve a secure digital ecosystem, we must shift the burden of cybersecurity away from individuals and small businesses, to the organizations that are most capable and best-positioned to reduce the risks for all. While small business has yet to be fully defined, this language is indicative of a continual push to hold businesses accountable to implement reasonable cybersecurity programs to protect not only themselves and their assets, but everyone around them.  Malicious cyber activity has grown from a nuisance, to espionage, damaging attacks on critical infrastructure, and ransomware attacks affecting industries and businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Business leaders must have a working knowledge of the current cybersecurity protections in place, as well as their business’s cyber insurance liability coverage to determine if it is sufficient. To that end, decision-makers need a clear understanding of a company’s cybersecurity posture as it relates to trends and new and developing threats.

As the year progresses, we have noticed a rise of a variety of cybersecurity trends, threats, and other concerns. In this article, we will identify several prominent threats for 2023, as well as how organizations can combat these concerns.
 

Top Cybersecurity Concerns in 2023

 

Increase in Cyberattacks

Today, there is a new attack somewhere on the internet every 39 seconds costing trillions of dollars annually. These attacks can be extremely harmful to a business costing exorbitant dollars and resources remediation.
 

Remote Workforce

Gartner predicts that by 2025, lack of talent or human failure will be responsible for over half of significant cyber incidents. The number of social engineering attacks is constantly increasing as humans are consistently seen as the most vulnerable point of exploitation. Surveys also show employees bypass their organization’s cybersecurity controls and guidance if it helps them achieve work objectives.
 

Humans Are the Weak Link

The Great Reshuffle has further depleted already stretched cybersecurity resources, bringing on a lack of modern security tools or no in-house security experts or bandwidth to support these processes.
 

Ransomware

Ransomware continues to pose a significant threat globally. Organizations should have backup and disaster recovery solutions in place, alongside incident response plans to protect their data from attacks and appropriately respond to incidents.
 

Cloud Security

Cloud security is the joint responsibility between the provider and the customer. The provider is responsible for securing the infrastructure, access, patching and configuration of hosts/networks, while the customer is responsible for managing users and access privileges, protecting cloud accounts, encrypting/protecting data and maintaining compliance.
 

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The widespread introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have both positive and negative effects on cybersecurity. While we can leverage AI to increase our cyber posture, hackers also learn from existing AI tools to develop more advanced attacks and attack traditional security systems or even AI-boosted systems.

 

What BDO Digital Recommends

 

1.  Adopt a Zero Trust Strategy

Putting in place a Zero Trust strategy means shifting toward an extensive security model that will allow for businesses to restrict access to the company’s valuable apps, data, and environment. This would be done in a manner that does not threaten employee performance or user experience.
 

2. Secure Your Remote Workforce

Implement a Data Loss Prevention software to monitor, detect and respond to potential data breaches while Endpoint Protection should be put in place to protect your business’s network from threats coming from employee or client devices.
 

3. Protect Against Cyberattacks

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a must-have for cybersecurity. MFA allows your organization to only grant electronic access to websites or applications only after providing two or more pieces of evidence to prove your identity. Security awareness training for employees is also essential as it will ensure employees are consistently up to date and up to speed on any relevant or important cybersecurity motions, such as making sure all employees are using security best practices via email.
 

4. Address Any Lack of Resources or Tools

If your organization is struggling finding the tools or resources for developing or managing your security strategy, consider developing an ongoing managed security strategy & operationalize it. However, avoid just “setting and forgetting”. A secure strategy needs to be updated and adjusted as time goes on. To make sure of this, consider partnering with Security Specialist. BDO Digital offers a variety of in-house specialists who can provide continuous security analysis, leading to better decision making against business objectives

If you find yourself concerned about any or all of these incoming threats, contact BDO Digital to establish a plan of action for your organization, tailored down to your specific security needs.

 

---