The old adage is true: the numbers don’t lie. We wanted to know what the numbers say about how well organisations today are progressing toward a more secure future. Your data is your IP. While this gives you a strong competitive edge, it’s also an asset associated with high risk should your environment be compromised in some way. So, what is the state of cloud security in your business today?

If you assessed your gaps, you could be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, and in our experience, you may also be faced with some critical gaps that need to be filled. As businesses invest in new cloud environments, the associated complexity can lead to significant security lapses. CloudSecure is the answer. We’re able to identify many security gaps in your business, including those in your cloud architecture, and what can be done to bridge them.

Multi-cloud strategies: the good, the bad and the ugly

A common theme that runs through business-related insights and advice in today’s highly competitive landscape is whether your business is future proof. It’s a broad term, covering everything from embracing a disruptive mindset to paying attention to the latest trends impacting your sector or industry.

We believe that future-proofing any business begins and ends with technology and data.

Data is the new gold

Data today is more valuable than any other resource. How we do business, who we interact with, the products and solutions we develop — all of these business imperatives are based on data. And the world knows it.

The Digital 2019: Global Digital Overview reports that Internet users are now growing by an average of more than a million new users every day.

This in turn means that the growth of data being generated and stored is exponential.

This presents an incredible opportunity for businesses that understand the data they are collecting. With the right data at your fingertips, you can provide personalised solutions for your customers that give you a massive advantage over your competitors.

But with opportunity comes risk.

Cybercrime and the rise of data

Unfortunately, while the rise of data gives businesses an unprecedented edge, cybersecurity threats are on the rise as criminals seek to access that same data.

As we’ve noted, global data is growing exponentially. Unfortunately, cybercrime continues to be on the rise as well.

The Global Cyber Exposure Index ranks South Africa sixth on the list of most-targeted countries for cyber-attacks.

According to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, Volume 24, 6.5 trillion threat signals go through the Microsoft Cloud every day.

Microsoft analyses and scans more than 470 billion e-mail messages in Office 365 every month for phishing and malware, which provides analysts with considerable insight into attacker trends and techniques.

The share of inbound e-mails that were phishing messages increased by 250% between January and December 2018.

Phishing remains one of the top attack vectors used to deliver malicious zero-day payloads to users, and Microsoft has continued to harden its technologies against these attacks with additional anti-phishing protection, detection, investigation and response capabilities to help secure users.

Accessing and protecting data

Compounding the fact that cybersecurity issues are becoming a day-to-day struggle for businesses is the fact that connected devices surround us. Trends reveal that there has been a significant increase in hacked and breached data from mobile and connected IoT devices — all common in today’s workplace.

Consider how many smartphones, tablets and laptops enter and exit your offices every day. Now consider how much data is stored on these devices, and how much data they have access to when they connect to your server, whether that’s on-premise or through the cloud.

In our experience, most companies are in the business of collecting data and utilising it to offer a better solution to customers. They’re not data security specialists — nor do they need to be. It’s a complex and ever-changing field.

The challenge is that this results in most businesses having unprotected data and poor cybersecurity practices in place — without even realising it.

Discovering where you’re at risk – and protecting against it

From identity and access management to HR, every part of your business relies on data, which means every part of your business is potentially at risk.

Have you considered what could happen if a cyber-breach reaches your client information? What about employee data? What impact would this have on your business?

To protect personal and sensitive information, we’ve partnered with AVeS Cyber Security, specialists in this field. We’ve found that the first step to protecting a business’s data is understanding where the critical gaps lie.

This assessment includes a review of your business’s information security in terms of your IT governance and management framework. It includes associated policies, procedures, guidelines and checklists, as well as the technical implementation of cyber-defence plan in your business.

It also includes what comprehensive and holistic information security governance should look like in your business.

To understand the critical gaps in your security, First Distribution is offering a discounted one-day and five-day CloudSecure Security Assessment, powered By AVeS Cyber Security.

Book your CloudDecure Security Assessment now or contact [email protected] for more information.