As our businesses become more data driven, and our assets information based, cyber security becomes more important by the day. Investing in robust security solutions is important, but that’s not the end of the story. Comprehensive protection comes from taking an active role in your company’s security.
The size of the problem
In a recent survey of Australian organisations, over one in five respondents experienced a cyber incident in the past twelve months – that they knew of. Of these, 17% suffered from loss of confidential or proprietary information, 16% experienced a denial-of-service attack and 10% financial fraud.
There were an average of 16,500 malware infections per day in the last financial year.
Security solutions
Thankfully, robust data security solutions are on the market, such as the Dell SonicWALL we provide. Unfortunately, many companies take the position that having invested in such a solution, their job is done.
Just like any other software, that is not the case. And although companies such as ours provide ongoing after-sales support to ensure it continues running as it should, data security is about more than sticking advanced firewalls and intelligent data protection products in front of the network. Revealingly, in the same survey that found more than 20% of respondents had suffered cyber incidents, 90% had firewalls, anti-virus software and anti-spam filters.
To draw a simple analogy – it’s like buying Photoshop and expecting every photo you take to be automatically colour balanced.
Taking an active approach
Just like any other aspect of IT, even the most advanced security solutions require some element of active management.
There is no catch-all solution to security threats, and although anticipating cyber threats is next to impossible – by their nature they seemingly come out of nowhere – you can identify where your potential weaknesses are and take steps to address them.
Those steps will range from the initial configuration of the security solution itself to implementing security protocol throughout the company. The second point is where many businesses fall down. It’s important to have someone in the company trained in security so as to ensure everyone else is aware, and following appropriate procedures.
It may sound daunting, but said procedures can be as simple as ensuring everyone changes their passwords regularly, and that those passwords are sufficiently strong. Regular security audits should become standard practice.
The key thing to remember is that security is something you do, not something you buy.
If you’re not confident in your data security, take a look at our security solutions.
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