Ransomware and Cybersecurity Threats Facing Businesses In Dallas & Fort Worth
Today's interconnected economy is overflowing with various forms of risk. If a user opens the wrong email attachment, visits the wrong website, clicks a malicious link, or connects the wrong USB flash drive, the entire workplace can be exposed, along with all the data that is connected to the workplace's network. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more employees than ever before are working from home, and this increased the importance of prevention and addressing vulnerabilities, among other aspects.
As cyber threats and cyberattacks worldwide increase in sophistication, the demand for cybersecurity professionals to protect systems and networks will continue to grow. Businesses and organizations across the globe need new talent to strengthen their cybersecurity stance and protect their environments. Yet there are over 3.5 million unfilled roles for cybersecurity positions in 2021. This talent gap should not be ignored, especially as more efforts are needed to keep economies and information secure.
What is Cybersecurity?
According to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), cybersecurity is defined as ''the art of protecting networks, devices, and data from unauthorized access or criminal use and the practice of ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information'. The measures of cybersecurity that are often put in place can range from installing anti-virus software, implementing BYOD policies, installing a firewall, etc.
What Is Not Working?
Can you imagine living in a luxurious home with a tall fence, but there are no locks on your doors and windows? As great as a fence can be in protecting your home, what will happen if someone was able to scale the fence? That person can easily make his/her way into your home because the fence was the only line of defense you had protecting your home.
We can compare this to a firewall system. As great as a firewall system can be in protecting your networks if it is the only line of defense you have, what happens if someone bypasses the firewall? While firewalls can certainly be a useful line of defense when it comes to cybersecurity, they should not be the only line of defense you have. You will need multiple layers of defense to protect someone from installing malicious software into your systems and breaching your data.
There is often a misconception that firewalls can protect your systems and networks from anything. However, there are several cyberthreats that firewalls will not protect you from. For example, firewalls cannot protect your business from complex DDoS attacks. DDoS attacks can pass right through an open firewall port that is intended to allow only legitimate users through.
Also, firewalls are often not as effective as businesses would like against phishing attacks. A phishing attack occurs when cybercriminals impersonate legitimate organizations via email, text message, advertisement, etc. with the end goal of stealing sensitive information. There are also certain types of malware that can easily bypass your firewall system. Cybercriminals are always looking for ways to bypass even the most complex firewall systems.
The Fight Against Cybersecurity
Waging war against the rush of cyberattacks will require the latest technological defenses to detect, prevent, and rectify attacks. However, technology itself is not enough to remedy the situation. If we are going to be in a fight against cybersecurity, we need to have battle-tested and battle-ready warriors. One of the biggest threats in this war against cybersecurity is not the state-sponsored cyberattacks, but the shortage of cybersecurity professionals to lead the attack.
The Cybersecurity Talent Gap
Business leaders, policy leaders, cybersecurity leaders, technology leaders, and more all agree that there will be serious implications for the world's security and economic stabilities if established and successful cybersecurity workforces capable of protecting data and critical infrastructure is non-existent. Since cybersecurity workforce development is a major focus for the public sector and private sector, we must seek accurate and specific answers to address this problem.
To meet their goals, businesses and organizations will need to do more than simply focus on certain programs or initiatives. We need to make the initiative worldwide, with an end goal of making a workforce development transformation.
Keeping Up With Demand
While there are many reasons behind the shortage of cybersecurity professionals, one of the essential reasons is that many schools have failed to keep up with the need for more cybersecurity professionals and there are not enough cybersecurity professionals to handle the increasing demand. There have been some businesses and universities spending time in middle schools and high schools discussing the importance of cybersecurity, as well as some of the career options that will be available. This is a great step in ensuring that more students are engaged and knowledgeable of cybersecurity and the impact they can have in bridging the gap.
More businesses and organizations are also encouraged to search for candidates from diverse backgrounds, and this can mean multiple things, including race and gender. Companies should look for candidates from different walks of life who have acquired various skillsets, training, and education. Companies may be able to find the ''perfect candidate'' for their workplace if they expand their reach and construct a team that is filled with different types of people who can all contribute to the uncovering of the methods behind the sophisticated cyberattacks.
Implementing Cybersecurity Measures
There are various security measures that can be implemented to prevent cybercriminals from getting into your systems after bypassing your firewall, such as installing anti-malware software. If your firewall does not detect a malware's signature, your anti-malware software can prevent your systems from becoming infected.
Additional measures that can be taken to protect your systems and your networks include the following:
- Educate your employees
- Regularly update your systems, software, and applications
- Utilize encryption software
- Secure your network
- Entrust complex tasks to professionals
Security is critical for every organization, regardless of its size, but not every organization can afford to hire cybersecurity experts like a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). A CISO takes on the responsibility of the security and integrity of a company's information network. For the businesses that need the services of a CISO, but lack the capacity or resources, Velocity IT can play the role of CISO for smaller firms that don't have the budget.
Cybersecurity Services In Dallas Provided By Velocity IT
Engage with Velocity IT today and protect your business from all the cyber threats and ransomware threats out there.
