Business continuity is about long-term resilience

Saravanan  Shanmugam, AVP - Managed Services, Bahwan CyberTek

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies
 

Digital transformation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it obliterates physical barriers increasing connectivity, agility, and efficiency. On the other, it exposes vulnerabilities. Last year, when the pandemic shifted business landscapes, threat actors found novel ways to compromise data security. A report from IBM found a 33% increase in the number of incidents caused by vulnerability exploitations from 2020 to 2021. In another report, WEF identified cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure as a cause for concern. Cyber attacks on Critical Infrastructure in an interconnected world will be more than an inconvenience or financial loss. The consequences of a cyber-attack on a nuclear power plant, hospital, power grid, or public transportation will pose a serious physical threat to humans. It’s time to acknowledge the risks and take necessary precautions.

To ensure protection
 

There are two ways to do this. One, cyber security has to become a business priority. It can no longer be pertinent only in post-attack situations. For this, enterprises have to invest in top-notch capable resources thinking and staying ahead of the threat actors. Second, build awareness across the organization about the impact of malware, ransomware, phishing, or cyber-attack-related activities. Helping employees identify these cyber threats will build business immunity and save business interests.

Additionally, intelligent automation is another way to avoid disruptions. Advanced emerging technologies can be leveraged to create automated business processes that adapt to disruptions with a human expert in the loop.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents
 

One of the most important lessons learned during the pandemic was the need to adapt. We witnessed enterprises, including ours, readily migrating to platforms like Office365 for better collaboration. We enabled VPN access to facilitate secure remote working, and upgraded firewalls to manage additional users. The pandemic pushed enterprises to think beyond business continuity and look at building resilience. Business continuity can no longer be about developing makeshift solutions but about long-term resilience.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

In BCT, we have deployed a cloud-based AI-powered threat detection solution to ensure our data, applications and infrastructure are protected from malware threats. Additionally, we take great care to orient and sensitize our associates about early detection of threats and reporting them to the cyber security teams.

On the Increase of cyberattacks
 

The attack surface has increased for threat actors. Previously it used to be restricted to enterprise spaces, which were heavily guarded. Today, remote working has expanded the organization’s perimeter drastically. Employees are using assets at their homes, shared office spaces, cafes, and working on multiple devices, exposing their data to several risks.