Cybersecurity: 7 Questions To Ask Before Leaving It To The Expert

A bit of background

Cybersecurity problems are no doubt day-to-day businesses struggle. Bloomberg Businessweek has recently released a podcast about the importance of data-centric security, revealing some cybersecurity statistics about the huge increase in breached data from multiple sources that are surprisingly common in the workplace, such as mobile and IoT devices.

• 95 percent of cybercrime came from only three industries: government, retail, and technology because of the high level of personal identification information laid in these industries’ records.
• Every 39 seconds on average, one in three Americans are being attacked every year.
• Almost half of the cyber attacks target small businesses (43 percent) and 60 percent of the cyber attack victims go out of business within six months.
• The biggest cyberattack happened to Yahoo! In 2013, 3 billion accounts were hacked.

We believe that any business leader today all realizes the importance of cybersecurity towards enterprise data. It is becoming much harder to ignore the issue. 

Leaving it to the expert, should or should not?

Like we have mentioned before, cybersecurity has always had a severe impact on businesses as long as we still consume the internet and consider it is imperative to our life. Hackers, crackers, cybercrooks are everywhere, armed with malware and ready to steal our data. The total cost for cybersecurity is expected to grow to $6 trillion by 2021, and that is huge. 

But the thing is: if business owners keep throwing money by hiring cyber-security services experts to solve the problem without involving in it for any reason (core business issues for e.g.), this can do more harm than good.

First of all, it can be costly to employ cybersecurity services, second of all, business leaders can acquire knowledge by themselves in terms of preventing and solving cybersecurity issues without being scammed. Business leaders should educate themselves to avoid common pitfalls and be ready whenever there are threats. 

Considering this case: a factory experiences fire, if the CEO faced previous building fires, safety issues, and preventative controls before (such as fire drills, exercises with fire departments, employee training, etc), he or she will know how to deal with the issue without waiting for the expert to come and help. 

Now, of course, business leaders cannot design and install a fire suppression system all by themselves, but with knowledge, they will have a more explicit plan to prevent the risk.  

Similarly, when it comes to information security, of course, business leaders are strongly recommended to hire experts to build better digital infrastructure. 

This article is a starting point, with the aim of providing business leaders with information about cybersecurity, some terms, and critical questions that can help in identifying the possible irregularities and errors from occurring in the first place.

Some cybersecurity terms that everyone should know

First and foremost, here is the list of 14 most important cybersecurity terminology that anyone who is using the computer should know about:

• Cloud: a remote large storage technology that allows us to access our file or services via the internet
• Malware: the umbrella term that describes all forms of harmful software designed to wreak havoc
• Ransomware: a malware that prevents users from accessing files on their computer. To gain back access to your file, a ransom must be paid in order to be decrypted or recovered.
• Trojan horse: like a back door of the computer that allows hackers to gain remote access.
• Worm: a malware that can replicate itself to spread the infection to other connected computers
• Rootkit: a hard-to-detected malware that can exist on computers for a long time, allowing the cybercriminals to control the computer remotely
• Spyware: like its name, it’s a spying malware that spies users without their consent. This type of  malware is usually caught in harvesting data (account information and financial data)
• DDoS: also known as distributed denial of service. This type of attack is commonly seen by many people, sure that anyone has experienced an unusable website because it’s flooded with malicious traffic or data
• Phishing: a technique used by hackers to gain sensitive and confidential information like passwords or bank accounts. This technique is similar to phone scams except it is a hand-crafted email message.
• Clickjacking: a trick that deceives victims to click on an unintended link or button. Clickjacking is usually disguised as a harmless element
• Deepfake: audio or clip that has been edited and manipulated to be believable, with the purpose of convincing people to believe a story or theory that affects their user behavior.
• Virtual Private Network: A tool that allows users to remain anonymous online by masking the location and encrypting traffic
• Breach: it is a breach when a hacker has successfully exploited a vulnerability in a computer.
• Firewall: a defensive technology designed to keep the malware away.

Some insightful questions to ask yourself and your staff members

To prevent business leaders from falling into the common information traps like oversimplifying the issue, buying the latest and greatest tool, delegating and leaving cybersecurity solely to the expert, paying for uninvested consultants to implement the cybersecurity tools.

So, before jumping to the hassle, you, as a business owner should ask yourself some of these following questions to hindsight, whether you should hire some cybersecurity experts immediately, to draw you a map with an unreasonable cost or to have them done whatever you expected in order to help you save costs since you’re the one who knows best about your business.

1. What information/data of our business would be the most impacted if we apply security measures?
2. What threats or types of malware could affect us the most according to the current trends we see in our industry? 
3. What is the biggest opportunity or gap? 
4. What is our road map? How can we achieve our goal? Are there any barriers to be reduced?
5. Which information is the most sensitive? How can I prioritize which data should have the most protection layers?
6. Do we have any cybersecurity incident plans? How can we respond to such an incident? How should the leadership team get involved in a rehearsal?
7. How do we ensure an open communication channel and trust?

Side-note:

By asking these questions, business leaders can see the whole landscape of their companies and evaluate their companies' risk postures, know which activities should be the priority and know exactly what their companies need when it comes to cybersecurity.

Reading our previous blog post: Cyber Security Services: Underlying Insights For A Better Digital Infrastructure to gain more fundamental information about cybersecurity, its industry background, services, and the impact on business and the market, as well as challenges in the future.

Follow our blog in order to learn more about cybersecurity, digital transformation, enterprise software, IT & Software outsourcing services, Big Data, and other IT-related topics.

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