When looking at communications technologies, whether it’s unified communications or data center, you can’t implement these technologies without considerations for security. With more than 5200 security breaches reported in 2017 it’s imperative that businesses take note and put in place measures for improved security in 2018.* As business are moving to the cloud, hosted and other managed services, they need to understand how security pertains to their changing business operations. In the past security was a firewall needed for e-mails being sent back and forth. Now, businesses need to understand who was sending us what and if it is malicious. With the proliferation of mobile devices this adds yet another level of security complexity. We are all mobile. And the key to security is to secure against the “bad guys” while still providing access to users where and when they need it to ensure employee satisfaction and productivity.
Now your business data is in different places. Some in your data center, some in somebody else’s data center, some in the cloud. So the real dilemma becomes how do we provide access and yet remove the challenges. In the last two or three years attacks are getting much more sophisticated. Attackers have the tools, expertise and the capabilities to breach a business if not protected. The implications of a breach can be costly with the average breach cost in US increasing 27% over 2017** so it’s no surprise that security technologies ( intrusion protection, access control, identity management and privacy) is the single most important technology project that IT department are working on.***
From a security standpoint, we must think about identities and no longer devices or appliances. Five years ago we put a device on the network, and that device told you whether your device could access the network. Now we must make consideration for user identity and devices. Users may need access with a laptop, phone or iPad from the office, hotel lobby or home. Additionally, when we think about security for businesses, it’s not just those “bad guys” we need to protect against. The weakest link in security can be your network users because businesses have difficulty controlling what email attachments individual users open or what links they click on that may be threats. Knowing that recent figures show that 77% of data breaches come from internal sources, we, as individual users, regardless of our role in a company, have to think about everyday security and we must to educate our users.
Businesses must keep up with security technology know-how needed to be successful in driving their business initiative forward? First businesses must assess their own internal assets. If you are a large organization, you may have more IT resources to address security. If you are a smaller organization, you may need to think about not doing everything in-house given there is difficulty in keeping up with what’s going on in the security marketplace from both a technology standpoint as well as an attack standpoint. Most businesses now will subscribe to some sort of service that provides daily, if not hourly or even up-to-the-minute, updates on malware and other attack mechanisms. It is key for businesses to assess what they can do in-house, what they can outsource, all while keeping employees informed on what they can do to help the business stay protected.
Ultimately, businesses must have a security strategy plan because the question isn’t if you’ll be breached but when. So, when a security breach happens, what are you going to do about it? Don’t be afraid to leverage the expertise of partners who can ensure you are current with mitigating new risks as the landscape continues to change.
Learn more about Consolidated Communications' Security Services here.
*Source identity @2018 Dark Reading: 2017 Smashed World’s Records for
Most Data Breaches, Exposed Information by Kelly Jackson Higgins.
**Palo Alto Networks
***Computerworld Tech Forecast 2017
****Verizon Data Breach Report, 2016