Cybersecurity is all about securing everything Digital

Cyber security refers to the body of technologies, processes, and practices designed to protect networks, devices, programs, and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access. Cyber security is important because government, military, corporate, financial, and medical organizations collect, process, and store unprecedented amounts of data on computers and other devices. Now most businesses adopted a remote working culture, they realized that technology actually needed to become their front seat driver along with cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting networks, systems, hardware and data from digital attacks.

During these unprecedented times organizations have accelerated the pace of digital transformation across industries, organisations are facing barriers in their transformation journey. The same has been highlighted in the Digital Transformation Index 2020 - 97% of Indian businesses faced entrenched barriers to transformation. With organisations adopting the new remote working culture overnight, many gaps in terms of security of data took shape resulting in the rise of incidents of cyberattacks and breaches. In fact, according to a study, 46.7% of Indian respondents believe that data privacy and cybersecurity concerns become a barrier to their digital transformation journey. Hence, it has become imperative for businesses to address this challenge by putting a seatbelt in the form of cybersecurity solutions on their data and taking a proactive approach to security.

Secondly, Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks occur when criminals interrupt the traffic between two-party transactions. For example, criminals can insert themselves between a public Wi-Fi and an individual’s device. Without a protected Wi-Fi connection, cyber criminals can sometimes view all of a victim’s information without ever being caught.

The world is fighting for data and these data will continue to be the fuel for driving business outcomes and staying ahead of the competition. With many digital transformation projects being fast-tracked, we have entered a world where it has become pivotal for businesses to utilize their data in a way that ensures results, reduces cost and secures their future. In fact, 38.3% of Indian organizations say that being unable to extract value from their data or overload of data also acts as a barrier for digital transformation. To maintain business continuity and serve their customers, many organizations have increased the adoption of technologies like cloud, artificial intelligence, and automation. With this increase in adoption of new-age technologies, businesses have realised the importance of data and its security. Currently, the amount of data being generated in the country continues to rise.

This simply creates the need for edge computing which can process this data in real-time and derive results. While this solves the problem of storing data, it also expands the potential attack surface. Losing control of those devices which are empowered mainly by edge computing technology can expose more quantity of valuable data to cyber-attacks. Hence, for a secure future, it is of utmost importance to safeguard critical data from cyber-attacks. It is integral to educate the employees about the best practices of cybersecurity and use cases that will help them secure the company’s critical data. IT security professionals who are able to rise above the challenges of today and protect the company’s people, data and technology will become crucial players in the economic turnaround. Consistent vigilance will be key for adjusting to the new normal ways of life while optimizing costs and accelerating digital transformations.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA