[BreachExchange] OPINION: Are employees inviting cyber threats into your organisation and draining resources?

[Audrey McNeil]

https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/opinion-are-employees-inviting-cyber-
threats-into-your-organisation-and-draining-resources-11558355

In today’s always-connected world, companies face a new wave of threats as
cybercrime continues to escalate.

Cyber security is becoming more challenging as businesses are having a
tough time trying to address growing threats while maintaining focus on
their core business.  These evolving threats are more and more frequently
external cyber criminals using connections inadvertently created  from
within the organisation by unsuspecting users.  These criminals then piggy
back off the connection to gain remote access into the organisation,
circumventing the organisation's Firewall Policy, thereby placing the
confidentiality, integrity and availability of the organisation’s data  at
extreme risk.

Most cyber breaches occur as a result of employee behaviour and all it
takes to compromise an organisation’s network security is one employee.
One accidental malware download from playing an online game or clicking a
phishing link and all of the organisation’s databases containing sensitive
customer data could be at risk of encryption by external ransomware
attackers. These criminals more often than not, are in locations where
there are no consequences to their activity aside from their own profit and
causing embarrassment to the organisation.

Visibility as a key threat intelligence tool

Without the ability to have a meaningful view of your organisations network
traffic it is impossible to identify suspect connections into and out of an
organisation's network.  Employees frequently and unintentionally open the
organisation to external risks by misusing and often abusing the Internet
resources, going as far as to use these resources to download their
favourite series and movies from torrenting sites.

The lack of meaningful visibility leads to huge potential security risks,
impacts the performance of this key resource and results in  a loss of
productivity to the organisation. The Internet is a shared resource and its
misuse and abuse negatively impacts the performance of business-critical
applications increasing risk to the overall functioning of the
organisation. Yet, how can this be identified and managed without massive
expense and skilled technical resources?

It’s time for businesses to take charge of their shared resources by
gaining visibility and insight into its usage in order to manage resource
performance, enhance employee productivity and maintain security integrity
by reducing external threats brought into the organisation using internal
sources, thus rendering firewall policies ineffective. To combat both
external and internal risks requires a holistic approach to security, as
well as the right technological tools to help businesses to manage both
intentional and unintentional threats within the organisation itself.

The risky business of connectivity

Most cyber-attacks happen in order to steal confidential information
through the use of malware like worms, Trojan horse viruses and phishing.
Businesses are targets for cyber intruders for the simple reason that they
hold valuable customer information. This personal information has a price
tag, and stealing data (or even holding it ransom) is the perfect crime
without consequence. In addition, we are seeing more and more cases
reported in the media which means the number of companies being hit by this
type of threat is likely significant and growing daily. These type of
threats including Malware and Phishing are most frequently brought into the
network inadvertently by users or employees accessing software through the
web, allowing malicious attackers access to the internal network without
their knowledge.

Because the employee acted in such a way that sensitive data was
compromised and whether or not this was accidental, the effect is the same
- your organisation’s security is now compromised. The organisation is now
at risk of contravening laws such as piracy, business critical applications
become unavailable due to slow response times and performance issues are
brought about by users abusing the Internet. Worse still, your
organisation’s sensitive data is now threatened by malicious cybercriminals
who can hold it to ransom, costing you money and compromising your
reputation.

It’s time for meaningful visibility

With so many threats businesses are faced with today, it’s tempting to
panic and feel the need to block employees from using the Internet to
access anything that isn’t work-related. However, that is not the solution.
Business is highly dependent on the Internet, email and Wide Area Networks
(WAN). Instead, companies should leverage the advantage of companies
specialising in Big Data analysis  and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
solutions where emphasis is placed on visibility.  This is particularly
relevant when it comes to identifying connection types, rather than those
solutions that focus only on blocking types of content or certain
activities based on known signatures and standard lists. Companies should
look towards solutions that provide threat intelligence through visibility
at a network router level on unsecure or unwanted connections, in order to
monitor and provide reporting on network resources and their usage.

Simple solutions to complex problems

Fortunately, businesses don’t have to go it alone as there are already
technology providers out there that can proactively identify threats and
block them - before they have a chance to do damage. Such services are
subscription-based and deliver easy-to-understand reporting functionality.
Inexpensive and uncomplicated, all that is required to make use of such
services is basic easy to access and easy to use hardware that is
compatible with certain analytics software. This analytics software makes
use of an analysis engine to crunch big data numbers and sift through
network activity and connectivity logs for anomalies, identifying all the
cyber threats that businesses would want to avoid: from malware,
ransomware,  phishing attempts and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
attacks to engagement with explicit, illegal and pirated content. Once
these threats have been identified, they can be neutralised and removed.

Such technology is a total game changer, as it empowers the Chief
Information Officer (CIO) with all the tools needed to monitor network
traffic and establish whether employees are abusing network resources and
ascertain the impact of such abuse on productivity. It also allows CIOs to
maintain an open Internet policy, as well as accommodate employee demands
to bring their own devices, without having to compromise on security,
network resource and application performance or employee productivity. It’s
clear that it’s time for businesses to stop over-complicating the issue of
cyber security and gain proper visibility of their risks. When businesses
have a meaningful view of their Internet gateways and the right technology
in place, they’re able to see the threats before they materialise and that
can make all the difference.
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