Posted by Infinium Infinium on September 09th, 2020 in Blog, Security-as-a-Service
Today companies of all sizes feel an increasing need to devote more time and resources to network security. And, for a good reason. Everywhere we look, there are new security threats emerging and new attack surfaces to exploit. As businesses continue the shift to the cloud and embrace a mobile and remote workforce, the traditional idea of maintaining security ‘behind the firewall’ will also continue to fall. Look at the emergence of Business Email Compromise (BEC) threats, for example. Also called whaling, a vital characteristic of these threats is that criminals impersonate a legitimate business stakeholder to extract funds from individuals who believe they are carrying out a routine business transaction. These attacks are sometimes called ‘socially engineered’ because hackers play on our social norms to trick recipients. Instead of investing in fancy malware, spoofed messages look authentic, and they are evading traditional email security solutions to arrive at employees’ email boxes.
Unfortunately, these tactics have been very effective at tricking employees. Trend Micro has reported that business email compromise attacks are projected to exceed $9 billion in 2018. Criminals research and prepare for the attack by searching social media accounts online to gather details from accounts like LinkedIn. Using these techniques, hackers stole $55 million from a Boeing supplier a couple of years ago. The airline Ryanair was also hacked, and criminals managed to steal almost $5 million after a fraudulent electronic transfer was made to a Chinese bank using socially-engineered BEC tactics. (Source: Tripwire). While these are hard lessons on their own, it’s important to note that the numbers representing stolen funds do not include the costs associated with rebuilding an IT infrastructure or damage to the company brand.
In addition to the increasing complexity of attacks, there are also several other elements at play. Data protection and compliance requirements are expanding rapidly, along with the number of security products organizations typically require to stay secure. Facing these security challenges, what can companies due to protect themselves? Enter Security-as-a-Service or SEaaS.
Cloud-based security-as-a-service offers significant advantages concerning cost savings, simplicity, and access to the advanced security products and approaches that companies need, without requiring major reinvestment every time there’s a new security product or update introduced. Purchased as a subscription model for a monthly fee, security-as-a-service offers organizations an opportunity to obtain enterprise-grade security applications, even with limited resources. IT departments can take advantage of security-as-a-service while reducing capital expenses and giving more time and resources back to internal IT teams. Let’s look at some of the top reasons why your business needs security-as-a-service right now.
Enterprises need to protect their corporate assets, data, and devices, but they also need to be profitable and agile to stay in business. Finding the right balance between these imperatives is increasingly challenging, with the deluge of security attacks and hackers’ increasing creativity. Security-as-a-service offers the ability to level the playing field for businesses in every industry. Adding a second layer of protection to in-house security systems at a reduced cost, IT pros can reduce the number of potential breaches and spend more time looking at security concerns from a strategic perspective.