Disrupting Digital Threat

As previous CEO and Dragons’ founder Den of host, Lavalife, and current host of The Disruptors, Bruce Croxon has firsthand experience with cyber security and just how impactful a breach can be.

Mediaplanet The Disruptors focuses on Canadian entrepreneurs who are disrupting the global technology climate. In what ways are Canadians leading the pack globally?

BruceI we can’t aren’t Croxonthinkat a minimumof Ata the major risk contending.areaof soundingof disruption Innovationoverly wherecocky,and the ours abilityin my to opinion.start things Lavalife, has a never company been I a founded weakness with of three partners was arguably the first internet-based commercial social network in the world. In my view, we continue to be a world leader in social, enterprise B2B, data analytics, e-commerce, and fintech to name a few. We sell a lot of our companies early and in many cases before they become household names but that is a capital issue, not an innovation issue.

MP From your own experience as an entrepreneur did you find that security was a top priority? How did you incorporate it into your own business and balance it as you continued to grow?

BC Businesses can develop ways to protect their IT assets and communicate it to their employees. Technology is part of the answer and so is employee educa--

tion. By making employees aware of the threat — what information is valuable and how they can protect it — the business will be better prepared to defend itself.

MP How have you seen security and threats develop over the past few years — how do you see this continuing in 2016 and 2017?

BC beento cute whichthe target threatThe attachmentsconsistentinfects common individualsactor computersremotelyfor or techniquesmanyclick through accesseswithon users. links used malware. phishingThreattheto by malicious compromisedthreat From actors e-mails actorsthat websites, continueto point,com- haveexeputertion. nology Even from deployed,withthe Internetthe malwaremost and sophisticatedcontinues attemptsto infectto preventionsteal computers. informa-techive Previously,businesses security technology. While have preventioninvested mostlyis still in a prevent- priority, businesses are now focusing on improving their detection and response capabilities. Detection security controls can use correlation and anomaly analysis to alert IT staff when security breaches occur. IT staff can then execute their security incident response plans to contain and eradicate the breach from the system as quickly as possible to minimize the damage and restore business operations.

MP What are the most important steps business owners can take to protect their information, property, clients, employees, and to have peace of mind?

BC Business owners can follow these steps to defend their business:

➊ Identify valuable IT assets which may include intellectual property, processing systems, or private information of customers.

➋ Evaluate how the business would be impacted if a breach affecting the IT assets occurred and consider the likelihood of becoming a target to determine how much to invest. Don’t underestimate the likelihood which continues to trend higher globally.

➌ Deploy security technology to prevent the most likely threat scenarios and also invest in detection and response capabilities.

➍ Train and educate employees about what information is most valuable and how they can protect it.

➎ Keep systems up-to-date and ensure they have all the security patches installed.

➏ Prepare for a cyber breach by developing a response plan that will help minimize damage if a breach ever occurs.