2023 brings even more challenges for your company’s security protocols. What security measures can you take in case your company becomes a hacker’s next target? Be aware of the current widespread threats and see how investing in cybersecurity professionals can keep your business running without any interruptions.
Cybersecurity Today: What’s Been Happening?
In 2020, everyone was taken aback by the latest update from the U.S. authorities. It was revealed that 18,000 American government and private networks were infiltrated by a supply chain attack by inserting malicious code into Orion, a monitoring program from SolarWinds Corporation with the earliest questionable activity identified in September 2019. It compromised the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Treasury, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and more.1
Every device you work on and each network you access may carry a risk to your company’s data. In early 2022, as many as 2.8 billion malware attacks were recorded across the globe. Along with this, 236.1 million ransomware incidents have compromised unsuspecting users.2
All businesses can be targeted by cybercriminals, but some of the companies that are more likely to become their victims are in these digitally-adapted industries: finance, manufacturing, and healthcare. The automotive industry has lately become one of their recent favorites to attack because of the potential entry points it has, such as interconnectivity between cars and smartphones, and other available features through IT-OT integration such as self-driving, unlocking, and global positioning systems.
Coping with the aftermath of a cyberattack can be very expensive and may affect your business operations for a significant time. In the United States, the average cost of data breach is $9.44 million while the global average cost is $4.35 million. From 2020, the cost of breaches in the healthcare industry—the highest across all industries—rose by 42 percent, an average of $10.10 million.3
Cybercrimes and the Tech World: No Letting Up
Cyberattacks are rapidly increasing. They grew by a whopping 38 percent in 2022 compared to 2021. This is because online threat actors, like the rest of the online community, have learned to adapt to the continuous evolution of tech. One of the methods they’ve learned to take advantage of is the present rise of accessible Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AIs such as ChatGPT can be used by cybercriminals as part of a larger strategy to launch more sophisticated attacks that are difficult to detect. They can also be used to guess passwords, clone voices, and push malicious emails through spam filters and right into your inboxes.
All this and more are happening today in the cyber world. As executives and leaders, you need to be aware of the potential risks that may come knocking at your door. You can mitigate them with your team through implementing two-factor authentication (2FA) and regular network scans.
Invest as well in cybersecurity measures, like End-User Education and Network Security, and form a solid cybersecurity team you can trust to implement safety procedures that can detect and prevent any threat in the making.
Cybersecurity Skills Gap: Why Aren’t Candidates Getting Hired?
With the digital age’s urgent demands for cybersecurity professionals, there are still many empty positions in the industry. In the 2022 data by ISC2 on Cybersecurity Workforce, where almost 12,000 cybersecurity professionals responded worldwide, it was discovered that the talent gap had increased to 73 percent.4
Despite the overflow of opportunities, only a few in the growing candidate pool get hired. With these openings left vacant, cybercrimes may and will continue to escalate.
One of the reasons for the low rate of employment is that companies require higher credentials and specific certifications for the professionals in their organizations. This is according to 81% of surveyed professionals by Fortinet in their 2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap research.5
Most certifications in tech require proven years of experience before you can even take their respective exams and can cost anywhere between $100 to $1,000, based on the examiner’s credibility and your geographic location.
To help candidates be competent for positions, hiring managers should evaluate them for their skills first and their degrees and certifications second, and initiate training programs for new hires lacking the credentials but show great potential.
Boosting Your Company’s Cybersecurity Defense: Prevention through Hiring
The best way to help prevent cybercrimes is to hire cybersecurity professionals. You can do this based on the budget you set for your company’s security needs. Here are a few options you can look into on how to form your team based on your budget and bandwidth.
Train-to-Hire
Some companies create training programs that conclude with the eventual hiring of their top trainees. If you ever meet a candidate that has the right set of skills but without the exact qualifications you had in mind, consider training them. Training programs and apprenticeships can allow you to shape new experts according to what your business needs. If it is within your budget, partner with tech schools that can help your trainee gain more knowledge in the field.
Another option you have is education assistance. You may want to financially assist your chosen candidates to get into tech-offering universities of their choice or take certification exams like the entry-level CompTIA Security+ or the more advanced Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
Diverse Hiring
To bridge the candidate gap, employers can widen their selection even more by prioritizing diversity. Hiring more individuals from various backgrounds, socio-economic classes, and cultures can bring a range of thoughts and fresh solutions to your table. Welcoming diverse populations into your company can help shift perspectives and increase the creativity of your team.
Employing more people from diverse backgrounds will also help open group conversations and invite more personalities to consider pursuing the cybersecurity career path. This will be beneficial to both the job seekers whose valuable knowledge can contribute to the steady rise of the industry and to companies like yours that need professionals in the cyber space.
Direct Hiring
A dedicated in-house tech security team can provide a much faster response time, resolve issues quickly, and mitigate threats before they grow by being familiar with your IT infrastructure, business processes, and culture.
Your cybersecurity team can dedicate their time to your business alone, protecting your company’s data and assets and regularly upgrading their procedures. Another benefit of an in-house team for your business is improved risk management, which can save costs and give you greater control over your company’s security measures.
Fractional Support and Offshore Hiring
This option adjusts best to your needs and/or budget. You can focus on smoothly running your business by handing over your cybersecurity-related tasks to an outside team of specialists. Working with an offshore team gives you access to international expertise that can respond to your concerns more resourcefully. This option is very flexible and works great for businesses that have niche needs or general monitoring services.
Cybersecurity Professionals Can Keep Your Business Running Without a Hitch
Invest in the future of your business by keeping it secure with the help of tech experts. Whichever method you choose to work with them, your trusted security allies can help identify which of your resources need to be most protected and how best to share your data with your employees and partners safely.
GET IN TOUCH WITH THE EXPERTS YOU NEED THROUGH ON DEMAND GROUP.
You are not alone in battling crimes online. Be ahead of technological conflicts and cyberattacks by accessing progressive hiring solutions for your company with On-Demand Group. Individual Consulting, Fractional Support, and Project-Based options are available for you.
References
1 Steven Vaughan-Nichols. “SolarWinds: The more we learn, the worse it looks”. https://www.zdnet.com/article/solarwinds-the-more-we-learn-the-worse-it-looks/ . Published last January 4, 2021. Accessed last February 6, 2023.
2 Mary Shacklett. “Top cybersecurity threats for 2023”. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/top-cybersecurity-threats/ .Published last November 28, 2022. Accessed last February 6, 2023.
3 “Cost of a data breach 2022: A million-dollar race to detect and respond”. https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach . Accessed last March 3, 2023.
4 Ryan Morrison. “How AI will extend the scale and sophistication of cybercrime”. https://techmonitor.ai/cybercrime-future/cybercrime . Updated last January 16, 2023. Accessed last February 16, 2023.
5 “2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study”. https://www.isc2.org/Research/Workforce-Study Accessed last March 3, 2023.
