How to Achieve State-of-the-art Cybersecurity for Your Organization

Cybersecurity has always been important in our interconnected world. However, today when we mostly rely on gadgets it is no longer just a technical concern— it is a top priority for both businesses and individuals. New technologies evolve quickly, and so do cyber threats, making our security measures outdated almost overnight.

Also, let’s not forget that traditional security challenges haven’t disappeared. Phishing, weak passwords, and ineffective security measures could be as dangerous as emerging cyber hazards, providing malicious actors with easy entry points to sensitive data. The numbers speak for themselves – over 9K incidents were reported in just the first half of 2024, meaning a new hack occurs roughly every hour.

This has brought security to the top of agendas for business owners and executives. According to the latest study from Accenture, 96% of CEOs believe security is crucial for the growth of their companies, so they are constantly investing to improve their posture. Still, 74% of them are worried about their actual ability to resist or minimize cyberattack damage due to very complex requirements. Businesses have to keep the security basis strong and up-to-date while being prepared to resist new sophisticated attacks. Further, we will explore some recent high-profile security cases, analyze what they have in common, and try to spot the pitfalls that made their security practices vulnerable to attacks.

1. Multi-factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA), which was recently considered a significant advancement in security, is no longer seen as a completely bulletproof method. Despite MFA providing extra verification layers, like passwords, hardware, mobile, or biometric verification, it also has limitations.  For example, what if users lose their cellphones and laptops at the same time? In this case, they need to regain access to the accounts and data, usually by contacting the IT support center and verifying their identity. This method seemed logical and secure, and the game publishing giant EA Games had the same thoughts.

As a result, the group stole 780GB of data, including the source code for FIFA 21, the Frostbite engine, and other internal game development tools. Now, they are selling this data on different forums. EA Games confirmed the incident and claimed no players’ data was accessed, so there was no risk to the privacy of players. However, the company said they understood the severity of these risks and were already working on strengthening security measures to avoid similar incidents in the future.

2. Password and Passphrase Protection

For every organization maintaining data security is crucial. It often begins with establishing a first line of defense – a robust password policy. Typically, this includes using at least 8 characters, as well as mixing letters, numbers, and special symbols. Also, it’s common practice to make regular password updates mandatory.

As Sigma Software unites over 2K professionals, our security experts use and constantly improve these practices to safeguard our team’s digital security. Even so, our experience has taught us that the key is not just to follow the guidelines. We also work on encouraging our team to think diligently about their passwords and avoid predictable sequences like ‘Spring2024!’, ‘Summer2024!’, or ‘Winter2024!’. This approach helps us foster security awareness and prevent password breaches, which have become a worrying trend, affecting practically everyone including Donald Trump.

3. Security Management

Even the strongest security systems have vulnerabilities, and quite often, the weakest link in a comprehensive framework is simple human error. A small mistake can pose a significant risk to security, despite using advanced tools or complex approaches. For example, Estonian engineers implemented best security practices while working on national digital documents – Identity Cards. However, errors made during the process led to several security flaws, effecting over 750,000 cardholders.

Other flaws were related to ID card management. Gemalto created private keys outside the secure chip and used the same private key for multiple cardholders. This oversight left a breach which allowed users to impersonate each other. Fortunately, the incident was resolved without any damage. Estonian experts quickly identified the flaw and ensured that the risk to digital identity remained theoretical, with no cases of identity misuse reported.

These incidents are merely a few publicly disclosed cases of human factor impact. Yet all those show that a robust security framework isn’t enough on its own, as human error matters in the security field.

Therefore, organizations should implement mechanisms to mitigate any potential impact it may have and ensure control over unexpected issues. This includes providing staff training to raise employee awareness, conducting regular security audits of both internal systems and third-party providers, and establishing clear security protocols, so every employee can spot and prevent possible security issues.

Key Takeaways

What is common in these cases is the impact of the unpredictable human factor. As cybersecurity makes our daily tasks more complicated, we tend to find shortcuts to make things easier. This can mean using simple passwords or skipping multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access accounts or information more quickly. However, these workarounds can create security gaps that hackers may be able to use to their advantage.

All this makes the implementation of cybersecurity implementation a never-ending story, meaning that the best fail-safe approach is not to strive for perfect security posture but to continuously adapt and improve cyber defense. Also, it is important to mention, that no single tool or method can provide complete protection against all potential threats, because a magic pill just does not exist.

Our experts have put together some recommendations that can help you craft a resilient security strategy capable of evolving alongside your business. It involves the following steps:

1. Adhere to fundamental cybersecurity hygiene practices (MFA, keep your systems up-to-date, implement MFA, follow the Least privilege access principle, etc.) that will protect you from over 99% of attacks. More information about these practices can be found here.
2. Pay attention to the feedback from your team, address pushbacks, and communicate every change or new security practice you plan to implement.
3. Create an environment where security is everyone’s responsibility. The tools and approaches are important, but a security-aware team is a priority.
4. Have a Plan B ready to create a secondary net in case your initial plan fails. This will help you efficiently mitigate potential risks and recover from an attack faster. For example, one of the practices that may be included in your plan is preparing backups to ensure your infrastructure can be quickly restored after a security breach.

As mentioned, a robust cybersecurity posture is more than a one-time setup — it’s an ongoing journey. This requires businesses to keep up with changing cyber threats and also to have deep expertise for constantly enhancing security frameworks. So, if you need support, we are ready to assist you with:

• Evaluation: conduct technical security assessments, audits, and evaluations to ensure compliance with regulatory standards.
• Testing: perform digital operation resiliency testing to identify vulnerabilities and ensure robust security.
• Improvement/Development: provide consultancy on the creation and implementation of security controls and processes.

In case you have additional questions or want our team to join your cybersecurity project – contact us. Our experts blend decades of cybersecurity expertise and cross-industry knowledge to address a wide range of your security needs.

• #Industry Standards Compliance
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