Cybersecurity Best Practices and Challenges in 2020 and Beyond

Ransomware. IoT. And more. All the issues that arose in 2019 are going to come to a head in 2020. Companies need to be exceptionally vigilant about their cybersecurity if they’re going to be able to survive. Here’s a general overview of the cybersecurity best practices and challenges for 2020 and beyond.

Cybersecurity Challenges Facing Organizations in 2020

It isn’t that new threats are emerging; it’s that they’re getting worse. Technology is becoming prolific and advanced. There are cyber criminals everywhere, and they operate with impunity. 2020 will see two primary cybersecurity challenges:

• Politically driven hacking. There are rising tensions now between the east and west, and this is giving rise to a lot of politically driven hacking. Hackers now have a vested interest in bringing companies down from within, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be larger companies. In the coming year, it’s likely that we will see politically and economically driven hacking, which will increase hacking rates overall.
• The talent drought. There are fewer cybersecurity professionals than are needed. This isn’t surprising; the cybersecurity industry is growing in leaps and bounds. The largest companies are hiring the best talent, and that means that it’s harder for companies to get the talent they need. An MSP is able to provide the full in-house IT experience for a business without having to procure the best in talent.

In addition to this, there are still going to be the old challenges. Ransomware is still popular, especially as cryptocurrency continues to grow in adoption. Companies absolutely need to protect themselves to avoid potential business complications.

Best Practices for Companies in 2020

Companies need to be proactive and vigilant. To face each cybersecurity challenge, there are corresponding cybersecurity best practices. Following best practices doesn’t mean that you can remove your risk entirely, but it does make it possible to reduce that risk. Most organizations will experience an attack. It’s how they react to it that matters.

• Keep security systems patched and up to date. Your machine learning system may be state-of-the-art, but it can still be hacked by a cyber attacker’s own machine learning system. To protect yourself, you need to keep your systems patched and up to date. Your vendor will be patching out exploits as they are discovered, but it won’t help if you aren’t updating your system. Many companies fail to update their systems properly because they don’t have the resources for these day-to-day tasks.
• Make sure your employees are well-trained. Employees need to be able to identify the hallmarks of an attack and escalate to their supervisors when necessary. If an employee believes that the company has vulnerabilities that aren’t being addressed, the employee should feel free and empowered to bring this up without criticism. Employees can be a frontline defense, and they can also be a company’s most significant weakness.
• Engage with an MSP. It’s now becoming prohibitively difficult for people to hire the right talent for their business. Moreover, it’s virtually impossible for anyone to become an expert in all the security threats out there today. Engaging with an MSP means that a company has the resources available to mitigate and detect the threats as they occur. The faster those threats are detected and mitigated, the less damage it will cause.
• Follow regulations. Regulations are there for a reason. Regulations protect both privacy and security, and that matters. Businesses need to not only be in compliant with regulations now, but they need to have a plan for updating themselves in the future. Processes have to be managed appropriately, and the right well-supported technology should be invested in. This is again an area in which an MSP can help, as MSPs are experts in compliance.

The cybersecurity landscape may look bleak. But there are ways for organizations to protect itself, and many organizations can be helped by engaging with the services of an MSP. Contact Red River today for more information.