Implementing a people-first cybersecurity strategy

According to Deloitte, Cyber attackers see the pandemic as an opportunity to step up activities by exploiting the vulnerability of employees working from home. Prior to the pandemic, about 20% of cyberattacks used previously unseen malware or methods. During the pandemic, the proportion has risen to 35%.

More worrying, a Palo Alto Networks survey noted that 35% of companies reported that their employees either circumvented or disabled remote security measures.

And yet, Gartner says cybersecurity spending is slowing as Boards push back and question what has been achieved after years of heavy cybersecurity investments. Boards and senior executives are asking the wrong questions about cybersecurity, leading to poor investment decisions, says the analyst.

Gartner warns that many current approaches to improve cybersecurity are falling short of providing appropriate and defensible levels of protection. With 96% of phishing attacks arriving by email, why do organisations rely on employees as being the last line of defence?

Google and Facebook were victims of a Business Email Compromise (BEC) in which cybercriminals set up a fake company impersonating Taiwan hardware supplier, Quanta Computer. When presented with real-looking invoices, both promptly transferred in total $100 million to the hackers, who also created fake contracts and lawyers’ letters to ensure the transfers were accepted by banks.

According to the 2021 Global DMARC Adoption Rate Report, among 1331 banks in Asia, 53.5% do not have DMARC configured, leaving their customers vulnerable to cyber risks. Among those that have adopted DMARC, only 16.6% have adopted a Reject Policy leaving the rest still vulnerable to attacks by email.

Banks with improper DMARC implementation could reach anywhere from 200K to 2 million spoofed emails within a day, possibly containing an array of malicious files or email related cyberattacks.

Welcome to Implementing a people-first cybersecurity strategy where we deep dive into the issues surrounding your cybersecurity strategies and offer workable approaches for both CIOs and CISOs to improve your approach to securing the customer and the company’s cybersecurity posture, while delivering better ROI on security investment strategies.

You are invited to a FutureCISO Breakfast virtual briefing where we will reveal:

• How to build a business case and executive narrative
• Use DMARC as stop phishing emails from getting through
• Build an outcome-driven approach to cybersecurity

And of course, the starting point to get to all the above. Stop treating your employees as the last line of defence. Secure your seat to the CISO Breakfast Club now.