cyber security business essay pdf

cyber security business essay pdf

The Role of Cyber Security in Ensuring Business Success: An In-Depth Analysis

1. Introduction to Cyber Security and Its Importance in Business Operations

Ever since the inception of computer technology, electronic computing machines have always been the targets of both industrial as well as military espionage. Thus, the workhorse of both industry and military has always been targeted by both internal as well as external entities. This has led to exhaustive lists of successful hits on the data of both organizations and nations, leading to substantial damage. Because of these threats and their potential consequences, cyber security should be the top priority in every organization, irrespective of the size, and the asymmetric threats that businesses face today, organizational leadership faces the daunting task of balancing their business objectives against this top priority. The management and board of an organization must work together and make informed decisions related to cyber security to ensure that the desired protection level is achieved. Cyber security decisions can impact an organization on many fronts such as revenue, reputation, intellectual property and sustainability.

The data that is being generated today is growing at an exponential rate. This data, which is now available in electronic form, is essentially the fuel that drives the business in an increasingly connected world. The pace of digital transformation has obtained a velocity of its own, riding on the back of this data explosion. The business is generating, collecting and storing data from diverse sources with breathtaking speed. This data is available to both authorized as well as unauthorized personnel and, as a corollary, poses a substantial risk of misuse. This implies that it is well nigh impossible to completely secure data from unauthorized access and misuse. Furthermore, the abundance of data creates, for the modern business a need which is as challenging as it is derivative. This challenge is ensuring the security of all this data and its related networks, databases and platforms.

2. Common Cyber Security Threats Faced by Businesses

ARP Spoofing: An Ethernet local network is performed and false binding at associating IP address is altered means which are intended to disguise an attacker’s MAC address with the intended communication partner’s IP address.

IP Spoofing: The process of tricking internet protocols means of falsely presenting a fake origin IP address into the packet header, in order to hide the true source of hacking.

Website Spoofing: A website is made to look exactly like another website belonging to a legitimate organization and tricks users into entering their personal information like credit card details, etc. into the spoofed website.

E-mail Spoofing: Unsolicited commercial email sent for fraud purposes by spoofing the sender’s address to appear as if it originated from another source.

Spoofing attacks: Spoofing is a general term which is used by attackers when posing as someone else. Spoofing attacks can occur in the following ways:

Eavesdropping: This is involved in the scenario when the attackers listen and capture the network data like usernames and passwords. This usually takes place on a LAN network or Wi-Fi/Bluetooth network. Eavesdropping may take place if an attacker connects to an insecure network.

Password Hacking: This is a much-known theft practice enabling the attacker to gain unauthorized access to private and sensitive data. On a victim machine, the malicious software removes the login credentials and sends them to the attacker.

ClickJacking: This involves creating multiple clickable areas over important elements situated on a webpage in order to misdirect the click response.

Denial of Service (DoS) or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): During a DoS attack, all services of business operations become unavailable after one or more servers are attacked. Compared with DoS attacks, DDoS attacks involve several Internet hosts attacking a victim host. These attacks are established after gaining access to the servers.

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) or Cross-Site Request Forgery (XSRF): This involves executables downloaded onto a victim’s machine which installs malware in order to perform functions such as stealing personal information such as login names and passwords, activating webcams, and conducting, etc.

Botnets: Defined as a network of computers infected by malware and can be controlled as a group without the users’ knowledge, this is often used by the attacker to send spam, phishing, malware, and adware. Also known as zombies.

Besides a cyber attack aimed to destroy one’s organizational data and systems, businesses have to deal with various common cyber security threats that require strategic action as well. These are:

3. Best Practices and Strategies for Implementing Effective Cyber Security Measures in Business Operations

Many businesses have a board with executive membership known as the Information Systems (IS) Security Policy Committee or the Business Continuity Planning (BCP) Steering Committee. Such board-level committees play a critical role in identifying and mitigating information security risks, developing a risk-aware culture in an organization, and supporting a nexus of physical and information security policy. The primary goal should be to ensure board-level visibility and understanding of security activities. Although it is common in the business world to have a security policy statement approved by the board, the existence of such a statement is no guarantee that a business will not suffer financial or operational damage from a security breach. The aim of SOX legislation is to ensure that an organization maintains the quality of its internal business practices and reporting to the investing public in total. Tools and technologies are important but are not the primary issue. Most breaches of security occur because of user behavior or procedural deficiencies.

Effective cyber security requires the coordination of efforts at all levels of the organization, from the individual to the boardroom, and recognizing and promoting the importance of the infosec team. In principle, the key to effective cyber security is recognizing the significance of computer systems and services, placing security planning and administration at the center of strategic business operations, and developing a forward-thinking security strategy that addresses an ever-changing threat landscape. Businesses can implement several good practices for cyber security using well-defined policies. In general, the idea is to ensure that every user and business unit knows its role in providing cyber security and has the tools, resources, and training to carry out those responsibilities. To put these policies into practice, a business should develop mechanisms for monitoring their use and effectiveness to support the organizational business objectives. Good cyber security can boost a business performance and help differentiate a business in the market.

4. The Impact of Cyber Security on Business Success and Growth

An optimal security posture ensures that businesses are resilient in the face of adversity. It enables businesses to embrace change and initiate or support their growth in every way possible. Security kicks in to ensure continuity in the processes and systems on which business growth depends. Trust in transactions is critical for B2B, B2C, and other business relationships, which are otherwise at stake. The role of cybersecurity in enabling business success and growth, irrespective of the type and size of business, can no longer be downplayed. In this chapter, we explore the reasons why in-depth business understanding is crucial for a security leader in a corporate board setting and how information and cybersecurity can be ensured to support an organization’s business success.

Securing business operations has always been at the forefront of good business practice. Greater cyber-related risks and attacks, continuously evolving threats, mounting regulatory requirements, and scarcity of security skills have all made security more challenging for many organizations. Protecting the business, backed by enhanced IT security, has hence taken center stage in today’s business agenda. The pressure to make the right investments in security has become more chaotic and urgent, owing to the climate of rapid-fire economic disruptions and unrest in the world. However, a more critical challenge that businesses face is how to ensure the optimal orchestration of their strategy and performance with security protecting their business.

5. Case Studies and Real-World Examples of Successful Cyber Security Implementation in Business

According to Tibet-feedback.com, personal data of 90,000 clients was stolen from the business, which caused financial damage to the business of 5 million USD. EasyJet, which operates as a British airline, claimed that the personal data of 97,000 customers had been stolen, and damage claimed was estimated in the millions. Marriott International is in the process of examining personal data associated with an equal number of 324,000 customers coming from the UK. In all the cases mentioned, the financial and reputation of these companies have declined due to the poor level of cybersecurity within the organizations.

Consider the series of well-known case studies that provide excellent examples of the consequences of a poor approach to cybersecurity. The attacks on businesses, including information theft, data loss, financial loss, and damage to the reputation of businesses in general, have caused considerable damage. For example, hackers at ConnectWise managed to steal large amounts of data, including corporate information and confidential payment and card identification numbers. The losses totaled 4.5 million USD: the company paid 4 million USD as compensation to the affected clients. This forced the company to turn to legal and technological measures to prevent recurrence. According to the company, a significant financial investment had to be made in order to restore the reputation of the business.