Part 3 will discuss three more cybersecurity trends in 2021.

8) Expertise in Cybersecurity Needed

Cybersecurity professionals with solid training and valuable experience are difficult to find, and this is a shortage affecting all industries. Unfortunately, a growing remote workforce puts these skills in even greater demand. Companies will need to have their human resources departments focus on ensuring they have the cybersecurity expertise they require.

In addition to hiring qualified cybersecurity professionals, organizations must devote more effort to employee training. Properly trained staff will be able to spot social engineering tricks that often lead to the most damaging data breaches. Training should be a regular part of the company’s agenda because threats are ever-evolving.

9) Threats From Inside Growing

Businesses must seriously consider insider threats at a time when more of their employees are accessing sensitive data remotely. The theft of data can result in serious economic losses, and it is possible that a disgruntled or unethical employee will be responsible for causing a data breach. Studies estimate that business partners are behind 15% to 25% of data theft incidents. Data breaches caused by insiders are increasing in occurrence, and companies must implement solutions that will detect suspicious activity and limit personnel access to data applicable to their jobs.

10) Renewed Role of Chief Security Officers

The leaders of only one in 10 companies expressed strong confidence in their plan for managing and responding to a cyberattack. Thus, security risk management is an aspect of cybersecurity that will need the further development and standardization of best practices. Perhaps the lack of confidence can be attributed to insufficient coordination of business objectives and security operations.

A Chief Security Officer (CSO) can only fully evaluate a cyber threat by also considering the business goals of their company. By doing so, a CSO will be able to communicate security risks in a manner that will be compelling and understandable to other executives. To be more effective, cybersecurity discussions should involve the possible effects and costs of a cyberattack, how to prevent or mitigate them, and the expense and effort involved.

Alpha Business Support

Choosing an expert computer technology-support provider is an important decision for your business. Alpha has been a trusted partner of many companies in the Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Annapolis areas since 1990 and offer:

• 24/7 Managed Services for Business Computing Systems

• Network and Mobile Computing Support

• Disaster Recovery Planning

• Software Development

For affordable client-focused network consulting services and solutions, please call Alpha today at (410) 295-9500.