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In a world plagued by rising cyber-crime and even sponsored criminals in some countries, the importance of having effective end-to-end cybersecurity and the key dangers of not implementing this cannot be ignored.

01 November 2023

In a world plagued by rising cyber-crime and even sponsored criminals in some countries, the importance of having effective end-to-end cybersecurity and the key dangers of not implementing this cannot be ignored.

According to BCX, cyber resilience is the key and this requires a holistic approach to cybersecurity that covers the organisation’s entire cloud landscape, from the enterprise perimeter, through to the core business systems. This cyber resilience extends to the organisation’s most valuable, but also weakest asset – its human resource, now one of the top three cybersecurity threats and becoming targeted to be allies for cybercriminals – enticed with huge amounts of money to participate in attacks.

Excluding or missing any of these areas will seriously damage any resilience programme and expose the company to damaging and costly attacks and breaches.

An integrated approach to cybersecurity is essential as it ensures a cohesive, proactive, and efficient defence strategy that can adapt to emerging challenges, protect an organisation’s digital assets, and support compliance requirements while streamlining operations and reducing costs.

A good cybersecurity posture ensures the protection of sensitive information or classified data, such as personal identifiable information, financial records and intellectual property. An effective posture enables business continuity, prevents financial loss through ransomware payments, and, in terms of national security, is critical to safeguarding infrastructure, military and government operations. Financial loss can include the costs associated with recovering from an attack, legal costs and regulatory fines. Then there is the issue of loss of faith and trust; data breaches and cyber incidents erode trust in individuals, organisations, and governments.

BCX is re-imagining trust and reinventing approaches to security by investing in next-generation solutions through partnerships promoting innovation and ongoing development of cybersecurity tools. It offers its clients a comprehensive cyber defence managed services solution, delivered by skilled and experienced resources that are fully integrated into the BCX Threat Detection Centre. This centre ensures constant monitoring takes place and any indication of malicious play or potential breach is quickly identified and mitigated.

This includes walking through the battlefield of a breach with the client, helping to defuse the panic that generally follows a breach and minimise the reputational damage and impact of data theft. BCX has a keen awareness of the entire scope and effect of any breach and the resources to take the appropriate actions.

Comprehensive cybersecurity

With the advancement in attack methods, as new technologies become more sophisticated and user-friendly, security controls and solutions cannot operate effectively unless security is integrated and puts in the company’s hands a comprehensive, single view of the total security landscape to allow for effective threat, event and incident management.

In the light of increasing reporting requirements and controls in both the local and global legislative landscape, companies have to pay close attention to the issues of business resilience, risk mitigation and compliance. Cyber insurance has also become an important component of a cybersecurity strategy and not just a consideration.

According to BCX, when it comes to cybersecurity, governance, risk and compliance (GRC) is not just about ticking auditor’s boxes or adhering to national and international laws, regulations and requirements. It has become vital that governance is implemented, managed, monitored and reported on. GRC ensures that the basics and foundation of cybersecurity is absolutely integral to the business and its technology and solutions. Access to cybersecurity skills remains a global challenge and this skills shortage trend will continue for as long as threat actors continue to evolve. With the advances in technologies, bad actors no longer need to be technology experts. There are tools that can make even the unsophisticated hacker a serious threat. Addressing this requires a multifaceted approach that combines training, automation, partnerships, and a commitment to fostering a cybersecurity-aware culture.

It’s only with companies collaborating on continual upskilling programmes, tapping into the local talent that is available, that they can erode away this shortage. BCX believes that partnerships with service providers having the skills is essential during this transition phase as upskilling in cybersecurity is a journey and not achievable in the short to medium term.

BCX emphasises that businesses should look to partner with a security provider that can deliver access to a 24/7 Security Operations Centre (SOC), but must do their research into who they choose and establish stringent partnership boundaries upfront. BCX also says hands-on experience is the most valuable source of training and partnering with a service provider that can assist with the operations of the organisation’s security programme, while also coaching and mentoring in-house personnel, is the ultimate approach to upskilling, while safeguarding the company.

Service providers can play an integral role in filtering the cybersecurity message throughout an organisation, also helping to establish the integrity into a company’s culture that will prevent the temptation for internal people to help external threat actors activate a successful breach. In this new world and mobile way of work, BCX says that having company data without a perimeter, endless amounts of regulation to adhere to, balancing business continuation with secure organisational conduct is a daunting challenge. This requires a proven and all-encompassing strategy that extends into incident response management, tactical management such as access controls and staying abreast of and applying technology advances within the organisation accurately and appropriately.

BCX stands out in the field of cybersecurity by offering a combination of expertise, a holistic approach, innovative technologies, customised solutions, strong vendor relationships, global reach, a client-centric approach, a commitment to compliance, and a focus on cyber resilience. These factors collectively differentiate BCX as a trusted partner in addressing the evolving challenges of cybersecurity and safeguarding the digital assets of organisations in today’s complex threat landscape.