Servicing peace of mind in a data free-for-all
March 27th 2017
As more and more businesses get to grips with digital transformation, IT has become a core part of business and while this is driving employment growth in the sector, many businesses are turning to specialist managed service providers to take care of core IT functions. Key among them is security, and Dublin company IT Force is seeing security-as-a-service becoming more popular. “Every day in the news we are hearing about a new form of ransomware or cryptolocker hitting organisations, big and small, across Ireland,” said Roisin Cahill, director with IT Force. The scale and nature of the threat means in-house security simply isn’t enough for many businesses. “This is making these companies, [even those] outside highly regulated sectors, more vigilant of their ICT,” said Cahill. “This type of attack is seen as rampant in Ireland at present. Not only do companies already face these threats, their exposure grows as they invest in technologies like mobile, social and cloud.”
IT Force works with organisations as small as ten users right up to 250 seats, helping clients including in the financial services who have to meet complex compliance burdens. Small businesses, however, can still be targets. “The risk of hackers entering a company’s computer networks through a supplier – or even, the supplier of a supplier – has become a greater concern since the cyber attack on the US retailer Target late last year,” Cahill said. Indeed, the attack on Target came via an air-conditioning provider, but the intrusion ended with 40 million customer credit cards compromised and Target’s reputation in tatters. Cahill said IT Force sees security-as-a-service offering benefits including constant virus definition updates independent of user compliance; better security expertise than is typically available in the organisation; faster user provisioning; and outsourcing of administrative tasks such as log management, which saves time and money and allows organisations to dedicate more time to its core competencies. Meanwhile, traditional antivirus (AV) products are struggling to meet today’s challenges – not least ever-changing zero-day intrusions. “Hackers and cybercriminals are using botnets and other techniques to circulate zero-day threats aimed at organisations. This has posed a question over the effectiveness of many antivirus products to block the newest and most dangerous forms of malware,” she said. AV still has a purpose, said Cahill, who wouldn’t recommend that clients stop using it, but she said they need to be aware of threats it may be unable to prevent. The growth of mobile, in particular, challenges businesses. “Suddenly, corporate data can be extensively accessed outside the enterprise. It is necessary to allow users access to data while they are mobile however, employees often don’t realise the risks being introduced when sharing, sending or receiving corporate information on a smartphone or tablet, especially if it is a personal device,” said Cahill.
As the amount of data grows, organisations are more likely to see their systems compromised. Therefore every business, from the largest to the smallest, needs to take the threat to their reputation – and their bottom line – seriously, said Cahill. “Cybercrime is only likely to increase, despite the best efforts of government agencies and cyber-security experts,” she said