“If you spend more on coffee than on IT security, you will be hacked. What’s more, you deserve to be hacked”
― Richard Clarke
Many people still have no idea about the importance of information security for companies. Many managers have the misconception that their information is…
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We are living in the present digital world where we are all depending on information technology more than ever and our health, happiness, and even our lives have its importance. Whether we are using medical equipment in hospitals, traveling on the latest cars, the security systems in our homes and full of technology smartphones, the computerized equipment performs a greater role in the current human experience with every passing year. We can say information security becomes the basic need of human life.
Information technology is not only the basic requirement of our lives but it has more importance for our business as well. The most important asset of an organization is Information and to ensure confidentiality and integrity of the valuable and crucial information and operational process in an organization, the demand for information security increases day by day. Our world is changing from an industrial economy to a digital society rapidly and with the advancement of information technology, cyberattacks have also emerged as a major risk to individuals, businesses, and governments alike. It is a big fact that cybersecurity challenges us in ways that no threat has faced before.
In a progressive environment that is more interconnected, data is exposed to a huge number and different types of risks. Threats such as computer hacking, malicious code, and denial-of-service [dos] attacks have gotten increasingly common. The implementation, maintenance, and updating of information security is a big challenge for an organization now to face. With the help of information security, an organization can protect the information and technology by responding, preventing and detecting internal and external threats. Information security strategy is the responsibility of both IT and senior management. It is very important for the support of the InfoSec strategy that all the staff in the organization should be aware of these information security issues with proper training and initiative.
The Infosec implements four very crucial functions for a company that enables the smooth application’s operation applied to the company’s IT systems. These functions are keeping the data safe that an organization gathers and utilizes, maintains and protects the technology assets which are in use to ensure they're functioning. For the protection of the information, the company will install or apply the correct software to secure and safeguard information like antivirus and other protected applications. Also, protect the valuable information as well as the applications that have been installed and used.
Infosec will guard the data of the organization that gathered and utilized. If the data is not protected, anyone can access the important information and if the data reached into the hackers’ hands, results will be dangerous like big business loss and other sensitive information lost. Infosec programs will make sure that all sorts of information are protected with both the legal and business requirements to guard the organization’s information. After all these steps to protect organizations’ information is a matter of continuing privacy and also helps in preventing identity theft.
Organizations have an awareness of the significance of having barriers to protect sensitive data from going public. The Cybersecurity Trends Report of 2017 refers to findings that show the requirement for information security skilled personnel depending on existing cyberattack concerns and predictions. These predictions and concerns are;
- Should be confident about the company’s security: When infosec community participants contributed to the report of Cybersecurity Trends, the question had been asked them how confident they were about their personal and organization’s security. Around 62 percent reported that they feel moderate to negligibly secure. Whereas around 7 percent were confident about their security.
- Skilled employees and security budget required: Organizations are making changes to allot more budget to the information security and hiring InfoSec experts. Since cyber-attacks and their threats are increasing day by day, infosec experts are trying harder to protect the organizations from wasting the organization’s time because of the disruptions in network defense.
- Business disturbance: We all are much aware that the time is precious and Security disruptions that affect an organization’s essential functioning are a risk that should be fought against. Professionals and skillful InfoSec experts should discontinue the infiltration that they ignored previously.
There are numerous challenges in our constantly changing atmosphere that makes it difficult to sufficiently protect our resources. There are mixing in the corporate and the personal live, inconsistent execution of policies, absence of awareness in information security and information security threats that makes the importance of information security quite critical.
Some challenges that increase the importance of information security are;
Free internet facilities for employees
Employee’s often using company email for personal communications and have a blackberry or cell phone that they use for their interest. Many people use their company-provided laptop for everything contains running personal software. Some employees bring a private laptop into the office premises and try to plug it in. This makes employees able to keep the organization’s information for personal use. There is a risk of this action as the information can be access by other external peoples and organizations.
Policies enforce inconsistently
Many organizations underestimate the importance of implementing policies and regulations for information security and either hasn’t enforced their policies or so inconsistently relying on the position of the employee. It causes very big issues when a safety function tries to crack down on violators.
Not aware of information security
Being ignorant of information security policies makes the employees a risk for information security. It makes the material very easier to attacks. Employees willing to protect the information but they are not aware of the proper methods to secure the information and put the confidential information at risk.
Data security threats
The security threats increasing every day from malware programs that installed on a user’s machine, phishing challenges that deceive employees, viruses, worms, and the planned identity theft attempts. These threats that attack the data are difficult to handle sometimes. The reason for that is the installed protection programs in the computer system not properly function or not decent enough.
Organizations must implement effective policies and enforce staff to follow policy rules, install appropriate protection programs and make effort for separate corporate and personal life as well as increase the awareness of information security for the protection of precious data.