India’s tryst with cyber security

India over the past year has seen a sharp increase in the incidence of data breach and cyber- attacks across sectors and company sizes. While, the large organisations have been able to contain the damage in most cases by preempting attacks on their systems through resilient security systems, in other cases the media has got the whiff of it first.

Additionally, the smaller enterprises are the ones who have emerged to suffer the most from irredeemable loss to data and reputation. Shree Parthasarathy, Partner, National Leader- Cyber Risk Services, Deloitte India, gives us more insights.

Here are some of the key challenges faced by SMEs and C- level executives this year:

Small to mid- market trending business challenges as of 2018:

Hackers are aware of the complacent nature of small businesses when it comes to cybersecurity. They understand that small businesses invest little- to- no money on improving their cybersecurity situation. Ultimately, it gives an easy opportunity for attackers to exploit.

Larger organizations typically have a robust defence system that is difficult to compromise or breach. However, many larger organizations have systems interconnected with small or mid- size businesses. When hackers compromise the security system of SMEs, they can then easily penetrate into the defence systems of larger organizations.

Data breaches can often mean doom for small and medium- size businesses. As a result, they are more vulnerable to ransomware attacks because they are highly likely to pay the ransom to save their data and their company from doom.

Business challenges trending amongst cyber SMEs as of 2018:

IoT has most definitely added convenience to hectic ● schedules. However, it has also opened new doors for cyberattacks. It is imperative for employers to now ensure that all IoT devices are set up correctly and there’s no room for a network breach.

Humans remain the biggest and most common security threat to businesses of all sizes or industries. There are many cases of employees abusing their privilege access, harming the company’s security layers in the process and resulting in a huge loss.

According to a 2016 survey conducted by Ponemon Institute, 22% of businesses blamed cyberattacks on insiders. Moreover, the same survey also revealed that 56 percent of businesses reported that the attacks were either by new joiners or employees leaving the ◗ ◗

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The flexibility and scalability that the cloud offers makes this technology more compelling to small and mid- size businesses. However, huge concerns still exist for SMEs when it comes to the security challenge associated with the cloud technology.

Although cloud technology is getting more and more secure, new and bigger vulnerabilities, loose ends make for security concerns.

App consumers are now being tracked through the use of ultrasonic tones.

These tones are almost completely silent and can't be picked up by the human ear, but there are apps in your phone that are always listening for them. The technology is called ultrasonic crossdevice tracking, and works by emitting highfrequency tones across ads and billboards, web pages, and across retail outlets, etc.

Apps with access to the phone’s microphone can pick up these tones and build a profile about your viewership details and in some cases even the websites you’ve visited.

Top concerns: Lack of skilled cyber security professionals; SMEs not prepared to pre- empt and manage cyber- attacks and data breach; Humans remain the most common threat to security of businesses

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