By Vikas Bhonsle, CEO, Crayon Software Experts India
In the blink of an eye, workforces in organizations across the globe became entirely remote. The pandemic saw most businesses making an overnight shift into the cloud. With the increase in cloud adoption, cybersecurity of IT infrastructure has taken centre stage.
In the past few years, cybercrime has turned into a multi-million dollar business itself. Palo Alto Networks recently reported that the ransom payment average has hit $570,000 – 82% higher than 2020’s average of $312,000. Predictions from Cybersecurity Ventures states that worldwide ransomware damages will be in the tens of billions of dollars by the end of 2021.
During the COVID-19 stress period, there was endless curiosity and chaos amongst people regarding the viral spread, a situation that cybercriminals exploited very well through fake COVID-19 information websites, malicious links, fraudulent donation pages for COVID-19 relief funds, and much more.
In the enterprise context, the frequency of phishing email attacks increased during this period, and it has now become a dominant vector of cybercrime. The techniques employed in phishing attacks are evolving quickly and are being targeted to harvest user credentials.
In the last few years, observing Cybersecurity Awareness Month has illuminated the crucial role of cybersecurity in our lives and economy. Such awareness campaigns encourage companies to modernize their security practices and adapt to the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals. It serves as a reminder for enterprises to make cybersecurity strategic imperative.
A vigilant security positioning starts with implementing unified cloud security platforms, like secure access service edge (SASE) and security service edge (SSE) that replaces different end-points and extends consistent security to all cloud resources. They also work on a zero-trust framework to prevent unauthorized network access.
Apart from these, implementing comprehensive cybersecurity training for all employees, hiring security experts, and relentless monitoring and updating cybersecurity measures will ensure a full-proof secured modern operation.