Digital Transformation
Isaac George, SVP, Head of UK Sales and Priya Kanduri, VP, Head of Innovations and Security Services, Happiest Minds Technologies
Industry View from
Shifts in cyber-security in a digitally transforming world
The cyber-security landscape has undergone a massive shift in recent years, with data privacy and protection grabbing the spotlight. Hackers have shifted focus onto either stealing data or making it inaccessible to its owners. According to a Symantec report, 5.4 billion attacks by the WannaCry virus were blocked in 2017.
The explosion of the internet of things has been a silent contributor toward many cyber-attacks. Companies are transforming too, to enhance their security and compliance postures by investing in analytics and automated cyber-defence technologies such as user behaviour analytics, threat analytics, privileged identity management and threat detection and response.
Nobody is immune to cyber-attacks. Even some of the most trusted brands have been victims of expensive and dangerous data breaches. These days, cyber-attacks are more far-reaching than ever before. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that cyber-crime damages will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021. Data protection mandates and guidelines, through more comprehensive legislation, are promoting a shift, helping curtail such threats. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which holds companies accountable for how they handle customer data and underscores consumer data privacy rights, has been a major influencer in this shift, with other countries following suit and enacting data protection frameworks modelled along similar lines.
While these changes take place and enterprises continue to embark on the digital transformation path, there are quite a few challenges along the way. Enterprises cannot compromise on customer experience – that has to be seamless – and to facilitate this, they have to take a holistic approach towards security. Governance, compliance, risk and security have to be embedded within the organisation, and again, application, infrastructure and Cloud security can no longer be considered separate functions. Integrating security and constantly refreshing it by keeping up with market trends allows enterprises to derive appropriate returns from their investments in the cyber-security space.
Traditional, perimeter-centric cyber-defence is a thing of the past. The trusted perimeter is dead, and enterprises need to employ a zero-trust security approach. The current era of digital IT demands 24/7/365 monitoring and discovery of cyber-threats to prevent attacks from all vectors, including newer ones.
Is that a possibility? Analytics-driven cyber-protection offers just that by detecting anomalies, unusual user behaviour and any outliers in an enterprise and flagging them. Happiest Minds’ Cyber Risk Prevention and Protection (CRPP) platform is an example. Inbuilt algorithms monitor an enterprise’s behaviour over a period of time and are capable of flagging any deviation from the ordinary, in real time. Interestingly, the algorithms have self-learning capabilities, can measure the magnitude of potential incidents, and can also suggest immediate corrective action.
So, while hackers follow more sophisticated approaches, enterprises need to leverage the latest cyber-defence technologies for incident identification and resolution. Seamless customer experience, a single orchestration layer and a holistic enterprise-wide approach toward cyber-security is the way forward!
Get in touch with Happiest Minds Technologies for your IT security needs.