Why You Should Rethink Your Cybersecurity Strategy in 2022

By 2025, it is predicted that organizations across the world will incur a loss worth $10.5 trillion to cyberattacks – that’s over 20 times more than Nigeria’s current GDP.

It implies that between now and 2025, many businesses processes will be disrupted, debt rates will skyrocket, and firms might lose nearly half of their customers – for falling victim to cyberattacks.

Hopefully, this blog post becomes a yardstick for you to reevaluate what your cybersecurity strategy is for 2022 and the years beyond, to determine whether it can adapt to the constantly evolving cybersecurity landscape (or not).

Speaking of the cybersecurity landscape, where are we?

We Are in a Cyber-Pandemic Era

Ransomware is on a rampage. Phishing attacks are pushing firms to debt. The sad trend is too long to be contained in this post.

The cybersecurity landscape hasn’t been what it was, say four or five years ago, it has gone from bad to worse.

Look at this: in 2015, cybercrimes cost the world a whopping $3 trillion. Today, the world is losing no less than $6 trillion.

Paradoxically, that’s 100% increased investment into the coffers of hackers who will use the money to get better at their game.

As if that’s not sad enough, a new statistic forecasted a 97% year-on-year increase in cyberattacks on EMEA organizations.

Without looking too far, ask me to sum up what the future of cybersecurity looks like, I would say that: Like Colonial Pipeline and the JBS Beef Company, many mighty organizations will fall, and the weak ones will be bullied, if not silenced.

What will be common among these companies will be their myopic outlook of the cybersecurity landscape and misconceptions that punch a hole into their cybersecurity strategy.

Any organization that wants to successfully protect itself in this cyber-pandemic era, must get vaccinated — scratch that — must develop a formidable, flexible, and long-term strategy that will evolve as the cyber security landscape evolves. Do you need a reason? I will give you three.

Reason 1: Legacy Software Can’t Save Your Business

Cybersecurity has gone beyond investing only in a legacy endpoint or server protection. You can’t depend on them for so long.

Many of the legacy security solutions are handy in combating and reporting known threats; however, they can’t identify a new form of attack, because they rely primarily on signatures — leaving you vulnerable to attacks.

Unless you are securing yourself with solutions and services like Sophos MTR, the chances are that your security system will be under attack for months without you knowing.

How should you solve this challenge? If you will be convincing your security to buy into any security solution this year, ensure that the solution has Deep Learning technology as one of its features. With Deep Learning, your security network would be able to predict and mitigate never-seen-before attacks. (Need more info on this? Schedule a meeting with our team)

Also Read: Email Phishing: Methods Attackers Are Adopting Against Nigerian Businesses.

Reason 2: Third-Party Risk Is Real, And You Must Avoid It

After investing a lot into setting up a strong security system, how will you feel falling victim to a cyberattack due to an ‘unsecure’ vendor relationship?

Let me tell you something: In 2021, studies show that 51% of businesses have suffered a data breach caused by a third party.

How about giving you a case study? In April 2021, Upstox, India’s second-largest stockbroker, suffered a data breach that affected its 2.5 million customers. By accessing a third-party warehouse Upstox worked with, hackers acquired access to over 56 million KYC data files.

This is the moral lesson: This year, you must be very mindful of the vendors, suppliers, and service providers you work with because unsecure suppliers can indirectly open your door to attackers.

How should you solve this challenge? You must also know that choosing the right solutions to implement in your environment is not about money and it is not about surfing through the internet for the cheapest alternative.

Invest in conducting a Third-Party Risk Assessment to determine the level of risk exposure. Work with products, solutions, or vendors that are committed to tight security as much as you are, or much more.

Let me use this opportunity to assure you that Ha-Shem prioritizes your security. Want to work with us? We are an email away (discover@ha-shem.com).

Reason 3: No Cybersecurity Strategy Is Right If It Doesn’t Prioritize Users’ Training

Investing in security solutions alone is a stopgap cybersecurity strategy – it won’t help you for so long.

It amazes me that organizations underestimate cybersecurity awareness training among their users.

Stats show that 96% of successful cyberattacks are linked to human error. It is safe to say that helping users identify these errors and ways avoid them will save you a lot of security worries and would make your investment in security systems count.

Do you know that if you run an effective phishing simulation among top management, you could be surprised that some of your senior executives are the most vulnerable?

Hence, this year, focus on training all your staff 24/7– from the top managers to low-ranking officers – using solutions like Terranova Security which has the most comprehensive cybersecurity awareness content library, and the most up-to-date phishing templates generated through Microsoft’s email gateway intel.

A solution like Terranova Security replaces, and in some cases, complements, the old system of inviting experts to train users on cybersecurity occasionally (in a month, quarter, or year).

With the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, providing irregular cybersecurity training for users won’t suffice. Except you are doing it daily, and the instructor not only knows how to engage different kinds of audiences but also has the intel on the latest form of cyberattacks.

With Terranova Security, you are literally putting a cybersecurity teacher in everyone’s pocket and on their work desk, for them to learn at their own pace, and for them to refer to when they need just-in-time and updated training.

If you are already looking to firm up your cybersecurity strategy, and save yourself 96% of cybersecurity worries through effective cybersecurity training, ask us about Terranova Security.