CYBER-RESILIENCE
THE RISING TIDE OF malicious threats Digital transformation is creating fantastic new business opportunities, but it is also opening up many new angles of attack for cybercriminals. We asked the head of a software security company some pertinent questions about these.
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ybercrime today is big business – so much so that many security players indicate that the bad guys far outnumber the good guys, working on the side of security. Add to this the nature of digital transformation and the arena in which the criminals are operating is only growing larger, with the number of potential angles of attack increasing all the time. We chat to John McLoughlin, CEO of J2 Software, a valueadded reseller of security software solutions, about the new kinds of attack vectors and threats we face in an increasingly digitising world.
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In today's digitally transforming world, what would you consider to be the most crucial threats we need to defend against? The threats are outcomes driven. Cybercriminals have an outcome in mind, such as to extract a ransom, steal information or embarrass the company or individual – it could even be a combination of these. The threats change all the time, as do the methods, so, really, the biggest threat to defend against is complacency. Do not wait until you are a victim before taking cybersecurity seriously. I speak to people every day, in different parts of the world,
who wish they had not been complacent, who thought it would not happen to them – until it did.
Cybercriminals utilise a multitude of vectors to conduct their attacks. Which attack vectors are the ones most likely to succeed? Generally speaking, email is the most used vector, simply because it provides the most access to the weakest piece of the chain, namely the trusting user on the other side of the keyboard. Social engineering, convincing stories and people with little knowledge of what to look out for make the easiest targets. People inadvertently
share details they shouldn’t. Curiosity gets people to click on links, open files, connect to complete strangers online, respond to queries and so on. Therefore, without a layered, proactive defence, user visibility, insider threat detection and user awareness, it is always going to be a matter of when – not if – you will become another statistic.
Do the attack vectors differ according to the size of the business? The vectors remain the same, but what will differ is the execution once the initial compromise is successful. Some businesses will be better prepared than others
