Guarding Against the Invisible Threat: The Impact of Cybersecurity Risks on Businesses and Proactive Strategies for Protection
CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Wilfred Sigler, Managing Director, VAS – India & South Asia Markets, CRIF Solutions.
- How do Cybersecurity Risks impact businesses?
Cybersecurity risks can significantly harm businesses in various ways. One of the most significant impacts is a data breach, which can result in the loss of confidential information like customer data or intellectual property. This can often lead to substantial financial losses and potential legal consequences. Another area of concern is operational disruption. Cyber-attacks can halt operations, resulting in system downtime, revenue loss, and the need for significant resources to get systems back online. Additionally, these risks can harm a company’s reputation, leading to the loss of customer trust, which can adversely affect customer retention and acquisition.
Dealing with cyber threats can divert resources away from strategic growth and innovation. Therefore, cybersecurity is not just an IT issue but a crucial business concern. Companies need to invest adequately in cybersecurity measures to protect their operations, assets, and reputation.
- Is it possible to detect cyber risk in advance, before a cyber-attack, data breach, or disruption to business operations occurs?
In today’s digital age, it’s crucial for companies to constantly monitor and respond to cyber threats. It’s particularly important to keep an eye on the risks posed by companies’ public websites. Also, companies should regularly update their internal security measures to close any data security gaps. In order to enhance these measures, businesses can make use of advanced tools and technologies available in the market. Additionally, regular training and guidance should be provided to the employees to help them report and deal with cyber threats. Recognising the need for enhancing cybersecurity in organisations, CRIF has created the Cyber Check Report for proactive cyber risk management.
- What steps can companies take to reduce the risk of cyber threats?
Companies can use various resources to stay alert and ward off cyber-attacks. Monitoring security certificates, update versions of various software being used for business purposes, regular access control of systems to be used, educating employee about threats like phishing etc. are some of the measures.
Assessment of vulnerabilities on the company’s own public domain and also on the public domain of the partners who are integrated in their systems become a proactive measure to take corrective action and preventive maintenance. CRIF Cyber Check Report is an easy-to-understand, cost-effective report that gives a quick look at an organisation’s current cybersecurity status and potential risk factors on their own public domain and also that of the partners.
This report scans for vulnerabilities in an organisation’s publicly accessible websites, which are often a hacker’s first target. It ranks the risks based on their severity (High risk, Medium risk, Low risk) for further action. Urgent risks are brought to the company’s attention for immediate action.
The CRIF Cyber Check Report is written in an easy business language, eliminating the need for technical know-how for its interpretation. Furthermore, the report assesses the potential risks in the websites of partner ecosystems that may be connected to the organisation’s system. This helps find any weaknesses that hackers could exploit to gain internal access, enabling quick corrective steps and closing gaps to prevent illegal activities.
- Can you explain what the CRIF Cyber Check Report is and how it’s used in the industry?
CRIF Cyber Check Report provides a quick, independent snapshot of an organisation’s cyber risk profile, aiding their IT security efforts and teams. By using the organisation’s domain name, it enquires and analyses the real-time cyber threats that the business could face. These threats are classified as High, Medium, and Low based on their vulnerability, using the universally recognised ‘red, amber, green’ traffic light system to signify risk severity. This information enables businesses to make informed decisions about addressing their identified risks.
All an organisation needs to do is, input a single URL or domain name. CRIF Cyber Check Report promptly scans their publicly visible systems, pinpointing potential weak spots, including outdated service software, domain admin and risk analysis, use of obsolete sites and certificates, phishing and malware threats, and data breach practices. Moreover, as previously noted, partner ecosystems are also inspected and evaluated for susceptibility to cyber threats. In this way, the report offers a comprehensive view of an organisation’s overall exposure to cyber risks.
Our Cyber Check service meticulously probes various aspects of an organisation’s digital presence. From domain analysis to service location, each facet is closely examined to ensure a thorough risk assessment. Here are the distinct areas that CRIF’s comprehensive cyber risk report specifically analyses:
- Domain Risk Analysis: Finds all domains connected to the organisation and their associated cyber risks
- Phishing Risk: Checks the organisations websites are not hosting dangerous content
- Sites & Certificates Risk: Checks that an organisation’s websites are well-maintained and that security certificates are up to date
- Service risk analysis: Finds all services or software running on an organisation’s domains and their associated cyber risks
- Malware Risk: Identifies if any domains owned by an organisation are being used or – impersonated to host phishing or malware activities
- Service location: Identifies the locations of the organisations services through IP data
- Comparative risk: Showcases how an organisation’s cyber risk exposure compares to those of similar companies
