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The 5 Biggest Cyber Security

Challenges for 2020
by Nathan Stan�eld | May 16, 2020 | , , , |

C
yber security challenges every business to uphold only
the best data management strategies and security
protocols. These strategies will ensure you protect your
sensitive information, and customer satisfaction. At a
glance, it may not seem like it, but cyber security plays a
key role in your customer satisfaction.

Research shows that in the wake of a severe security breach, small-to-

medium size businesses experience at least 8 hours of system
downtime (Cisco 2018 SMB Cyber Security Report). Furthermore, 39%
of businesses reported that more than half of their systems were
a�ected. In a small business, you’re far more likely to have
interconnected core systems with less separation between critical
systems. Take a moment to think about that. Could your business
survive if more than half your system went down for over 8 hours?

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Our best guess is probably not.

The 5 Cyber Security Challenges Facing

Businesses Today
Unfortunately, cyber attacks are consistently on the rise. Furthermore,
the overall cost of data breaches has increased (from an average of
$141 per record, to $148). So, it’s clear that many businesses need to
address a few things in order to protect themselves and their
customers. As a result, we’ve identi�ed the �ve major cyber security
challenges that small-to-medium organisations need to focus on. We
believe that overcoming these challenges will help your business
succeed in these attack-infested waters of modern business.

Challenge #1: Identify and Contain Breach As

Quickly As Possible
This sounds like an obvious rule of thumb for any business, but it’s not
nearly as simple as it sounds. The average time to identify a breach in
2019 is 185 days! That’s half a year. Then after that, the average time
to contain a breach is around 75 days. These numbers are much
higher than you might expect. But often data breaches go unnoticed
for months. This comes down to one main reason: businesses are not
alerted to the breach at the time of the attack.

Unless you’re aware of the attack at the time that its happening, how

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could you possibly know your data has been compromised? Imagine
that one day while you were out at work someone broke into your
home. They made a copy of your passport and then left unnoticed,
leaving no evidence of their presence. How could you possibly know
that something was amiss? Unless you knew for certain that someone
had been in your home? It’s a similar concept. This is why data
breaches take so long to identify. As a result, compromised data could
be used in a damaging way well before the a�ected party even
realises.

The challenge in making sure your business isn’t one of these statistics
lies in your cyber security management. Implement active network
monitoring, data loss prevention, and next-gen �rewall with anti-
malware. These tools are all designed to alert you to any suspicious
activity and attempted breaches.

Challenge #2: Reduce The Opportunity For

Attack
What’s better than identifying a data breach or attack as soon as
possible? Avoiding the attack altogether, obviously. So, this is your
next challenge as a small-to-medium business: identify and minimise
risks, so there is far less opportunity for cyber attack. Most cyber
attacks rely on exploiting system vulnerabilities, and looking for the
‘path of least resistance’. This is why small-to-medium businesses are
common target of cyber attacks; they are far less likely to have the
cyber security measures of a big enterprise (despite the enterprise
probably having juicier data).

So, it becomes about reducing those opportunities. We do this by

patching system vulnerabilities and implementing cyber security
policies that make it nearly impossible for attacks to be carried out.
Implement strategies like the ASD’s ‘Essential Eight’. Implement multi-
factor authentication, and utilise a mobile device management tool.
Ensure that you have data encryption on every level. Cyber security is
a process of protecting your data and ultimately, your livelihood.
We’ve compiled a sensible list of cyber security strategies that will
drastically reduce vulnerabilities and opportunities for attack.

Be mindful that data management forms a large part of this aspect of

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cyber security, which is not always something that is given a lot of

thought. Have a look at some tried and true data management
strategies we advise:

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Challenge #3: Creating a Culture of

Awareness
Why is this a challenge? It’s a challenge because a) it is so common and
all too easy for businesses and employees to undervalue the
importance of cyber security and b) even if you’re on board with it, it’s
going to be hard to get everyone else engaged with the same level of
vigilance. It feels like a much less personal stake for employees. For
many employees, they’ve been in the workforce for anywhere from
10-40 years, so you can imagine that cyber security simply isn’t a habit
or something they consider on a daily basis.

When you work in IT, or other modern and/or technology-based

industries, it’s easy to fall into a bubble where you live and breathe
cyber security issues. It can be really di�cult to convey that
importance to employees who’ve spent 80% of their career without
giving it a second thought. So, this is your next challenge. Why is it
important? Employee education is one of the top cost-reducing factors
when it comes to the overall cost of a data breach. With uni�ed
understanding from the managerial level down, you minimise the risk
and chance of attack.

Creating a culture of awareness means constantly and consistently

highlighting cyber security within the workplace from day one. It’s not
enough to run a one-o� seminar on the importance of password
protection. Some suggestions that may help get the ball rolling:
incentivise your sta� to identify cyber security risks and reward them
for executing excellent cyber security awareness, regularly review
security news and vulnerabilities together as a team, or run cyber drills
where your sta� have to identify or experience a simulated cyber
attack or phishing attempt.

Challenge #4: Avoiding Loss of Functionality

One of the more di�cult cyber security challenges lies in maintaining
business functionality in the event of an attack or breach. As we
discussed above, a severe attack can bring everything grinding to a
painfully expensive halt. Your business could su�er from excessive
system downtime, or data loss. You need to minimise this downtime
and loss of functionality within your business. In order to avoid this

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critical loss of functionality, there are a few strategies you can

implement.

Firstly, every business should have an up-to-date business continuity

plan. A solid business continuity plan will provide you with a set of
steps to take following a cyber incident to get you back on your feet as
soon as possible. Secondly, backups and disaster recovery are your
friend. Ensure that you have regular backups scheduled for your
system (either to a local, or cloud-based server). Backups should always
be tested! It’s no good to you if you try to restore from backup, only to
�nd the last month worth of data isn’t there.

Lastly, and this is not an accessible option for every business, but
redundant infrastructure is also going to be your lifesaver here. In the
event of a serious cyber attack that puts your whole system out of
action; a redundant server exists to take over in the immediate
aftermath of said failure.

Challenge #5: Complying With Cyber Security

Legislation
The last challenge on our list is one that many businesses don’t think
about. Cyber security legislation is slowly coming into e�ect around
the world. This signi�es a cultural shift in the way cyber security is
understood and re�ects new social norms in the cyber security world.
However, too many businesses are not taking note of the changes and
are possibly unaware that they may be in violation of these cyber
security regulations.

In 2019, we are looking at two primary regulations that have come into
e�ect. Based in the EU, you have the General Data Protection
Regulation and here in Australia, we have the Noti�able Data Breaches
Scheme. Despite being far from the EU, if your business handles any
information for customers or business partners in the EU; you’ll be on
the hook. And it’s almost guaranteed that your business falls within
the requirements for compliance of the NDBS and the Privacy Act.
Unless your business has a cool $420,000 lying around to spare in
�nes; it’s important to ensure you’re complying with the Australian
regulations (even if it’s just to protect your wallet).

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