New survey shows that companies in Ireland are expose to Cybersecurity threats

Cyber threats are on the rise all around the world, every week the media reports new threats, some of them more damaging the others. For IT security Pros it is becoming extremely difficult to catch up with the updates and keep their companies safe. The most recent survey conducted by the Data Solutions-commissioned among Irish IT decision-makers demonstrated the Irish businesses in general are vulnerable and at risk of cybersecurity attacks.

The new study suggested that most of the decision-makers interviewed consider human error the greatest cyber threat faced by Irish businesses. 60% of the respondents said that human error is their predominant cyber risk.

Even though, 93% of the interviewed people said that their companies have a formal cyber defence strategy, 63% felt that their organisations are not well prepared do deal with the emerging threats. The increase of threats reflects in the investments that companies are planning. 76% of them expected to increase their cyber security investments during 2018/2019.

However, the problem still lies with budgets constraints, as 51% of the respondents of the survey believe that their budgets aren’t aligned with their needs in new security infrastructure. The lack of budget directly increases the risk of cyber-attacks, as in this field the investments need to be constantly either in infrastructure or training.

Phishing attacks, which target employee negligence through malicious emails was considered by 57% of the Irish decision-makers the most serious security threat. In the second position was malware with 54% and ransomware with 52%. Considering the speed that cyber crimes developed in today’s business environment the results indicated that being aware of the risks is not enough. An established plan must be in practise, despite the size of the company.

How to improve Cybersecurity process?

One of the most recommended frameworks in Cybersecurity is the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), which was created in the States in 2013 as a set of principles to help companies to keep their businesses safe and cyber risk free. The five practises became a reference in the public and private sector.

NIST Framework

The main 5 NIST framework principles are described below:

• Identify: Can the organisation understand possible risks to its data, governance processes and IT systems?
• Protect: Are measures such as access controls and adequate training programs in place to defend against common threats?
• Detect: Is it easy to flag anomalies and unusual events via solutions such as continuous monitoring software?
• Respond: What procedures are in place for analysing, mitigating and communicating about a security event?
• Recover: How resilient are the organisation's operations and what could be done to the improve them?

Why is the NIST framework helpful?

With the cyber crimes and attacks rising and getting smarter and more difficult to prevent, establishing a process is essential to keep things running smoothly. According to Alan Deery, Director, New Horizons Ireland, NIST is one of the best tools for organising cybersecurity departments. “The NIST can help by ensuring organizations identify their specific vulnerabilities to ransomware attacks, establish standardized processes across multiple departments and deploy the appropriate technical solutions and skilled personnel”, revealed Alan.

Despite the fact that NIST has been around for some time, it's still unknow for many companies. That’s why is important to highlight the relevance of it in the context that business around the world are every day more and more exposed to different threats. The data above shows that Irish businesses have a path to build up regarding to security and the adequate tools can help this journey in a more effective way.

Read more about NIST

Cybersecurity Training

At New Horizons Ireland we provide a wide range of courses designed to guide you in your Cybersecurity journey. They were created considering the different professional levels, from beginner to advanced. The courses can be delivered in different ways. You can attend them online, instructor led or in our most convenient option: Mentored Learning, which is a blend between online and instructor led at your own pace and in the way that best suits your schedule. You will be guided from our certified instructors the whole time through the labs and content.

Click here to acces all out list of Cybersecurity courses. 

NIST Roadmap

You can also check the NIST Roadmap to see all the list of courses available according to your Cybersecurity level.

NIST Roadmap

*The article below is based in the survey available in this link.