There was a time when cybercrime was seen as an issue that only affected the biggest, most influential companies.
Now, cyberattacks have become part of the daily news cycle, with more mid-sized businesses reporting a rise in security breaches, as a new breed of cybercriminal emerges, at a time when corporate networks are at their most vulnerable.
So, what are the most common cybersecurity challenges facing organisations today?
Siloed data, tools, and teams
Research shows that on average, businesses deploy 47 different cybersecurity solutions and technologies purchased from multiple vendors across their network. This piecemeal approach to security can cause significant challenges for IT and security teams including performance issues, delays in incident response time, and unnecessary complexity.
Siloed information is also a cause for concern. Cybercriminals know how to exploit these vulnerable locations; stealing data and causing breaches that can often go unnoticed if the data is unintegrated and not on the security team's radar.
And once data becomes isolated in incompatible and standalone systems, it becomes a lot harder for team members in different areas of the company to gain access to it; making it difficult to gain data insights to inform business decision-making, which in turn becomes a potential obstacle to business growth.
Too many surfaces
As a result of recent events, businesses are currently seeing a clear shift towards employees favouring a more flexible, hybrid working model. This rise in demand for "anywhere working" is still causing major challenges for organisations that are struggling to monitor and secure multiple locations, workloads, devices, and clouds in a constantly evolving environment.
According to Michael Suby, Research Vice President in Security and Trust at IDC,
"Endpoint security remains a critical element of a multi-layered security strategy as endpoints are frequently the first point of entry for attackers."
Organisations need to consider the business risks involved in trying to protect multiple endpoints and complex workloads with outdated security solutions that are unable to evolve with their needs and are no longer fit for purpose.
Lack of visibility
Another common issue is a lack of visibility into endpoints and workloads across environments. This could lead to security teams being forced into a situation where they have to make critical decisions based on inaccurate or incomplete data. And without proper context, information can't be prioritised and business-critical data may be lost or held to ransom.
A new approach to security
Even though the global economy is starting to recover and working life is returning to "normal", cyberattacks are showing no signs of slowing down. Business leaders need to start treating cybersecurity as a business decision and take a more unified, proactive approach to security that can be incorporated into a wider data resiliency plan.
Read the next article to learn how VMware is helping businesses meet these modern cybersecurity challenges by protecting apps and data everywhere with security that's built-in, not bolted on.
This post is funded by VMware
