The rise of IoT has made managing cybersecurity more complex than ever, negating protective network walls that used to be sufficient.
But even without IoT, less-digitized organizations suffer countless holes in their defense systems with shadow IT, unencrypted IP traffic, and vulnerable SaaS applications.
Here’s what today’s organizations are up against:
Shadow IT
Department-level initiatives like Digital Transformation often bring in new complexities like IoT, new SaaS applications, and even new, unauthorized devices. Since these aren’t always enterprise-wide initiatives, departments may not feel the need to go through proper procurement channels. As a result, responsibility for cyber-security often falls on the heads of department managers without proper knowledge of defenses or compliance standards. They run their own ad-hoc internal IT departments with their own standards of cyber-security, and a whole new level of vulnerability is born. This is known as Shadow IT.
Cyber-security Skills Gap
As companies make headway with their cloud migration goals, many find they are strained in resources to protect these cloud initiatives. Securing the cloud is a complex process that must involve both cloud providers and users, per the taking-a-closer-look-at-the-shared-security-responsibility-model. But what many organizations are finding is that they simply don’t have the in-house skills they need to cover their end of the bargain.
To make matters worse, it is predicted that there will be 3.5 million unfilled jobs for cyber-security professionals by 2021, which means companies are more vulnerable than ever.
The Rise of Crypto Mining Software
“Cryptojacking” is among the newest of threats, as resource-hungry cryptocurrency mining operations become more desperate for processing power. The Cyber Threat Alliance reports a 459 percent increase in cryptojacking rates.
Malware Cocktails
Cyber-criminals are upping their game and creating powerful cocktails that attack companies on several levels. Nowadays, one single attack can mean not just one, but multiple types of malware get introduced into an enterprise ecosystem. They’re stealthy, persistent, and designed to maximize profits for cybercriminals who extort their victims.