Almost all companies are computerized. In fact, many organizations have dropped the \u201cdigital\u201d word from their lexicon, because it is assumed that if it\u2019s business, then it\u2019s also digital. There is no doubt that digitalization has brought agility, new revenues, and has cut costs, but with increasing digitization the danger is growing. In South Africa there are 110 million cyber-attacks per month. On average 140 days pass between a cyber-infiltration and the detection of the threat. And given our dependence on technology, the impacts could be catastrophic. It\u2019s time to get serious about security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And regulations are also getting serious. In Europe the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was enacted this year. Non-compliance is expensive \u2013 either $25 million per data breach or 4% of your annual revenue (whichever is more). In South Africa the PoPI act (Protection of Private Information) act was promulgated in 2013, but so far only a few elements have been enacted. Estimates are that the full act will be in effect within a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, the average person owns 3.2 connected devices. And they want to use these to access your products and services, and your staff want to operate in your business from these devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are four types of security you need to be concerned about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the above forms of security must of course encompass desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets, and must secure staff wherever they are and whenever they work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s some stats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The numbers are frightening, and the corporate response is inadequate \u2013 we can expect the costs to escalate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some CIOs might expect to resolve these issues with Microsoft 365 \u2013 which differs from Office 365 in that it includes security at all levels described here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, this may not be the optimum approach. It is easier and more focused to look at what your staff do and how they work, and then select the specific tool that you need to address those circumstances. For instance, if you want to manage mobile devices and applications you would use Enterprise Mobility + Security, Mobile device management for Office 365, and Intune. If you wanted to safeguard and manage staff identities, you would use Azure Key Vault and Azure Active Directory. There are 38 products in the Microsoft suite that deal with security, and depending on what you want to do, how you work and what risks you believe are manageable, you could end up using fewer products than are present in the entire suite of products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Get help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A professional team who know the products and how they work will take you through a process to decide exactly what you need based on your business and how it operates. The discussion must be business led, rather than technology driven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The danger is demonstrable. Your reaction must be measured. But you must react.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Takeouts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In South Africa there are 110 million cyber-attacks per month<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given our dependence on technology it\u2019s time to get serious about security<\/p>\n\n\n\n The average person owns 3.2 connected devices \u2013 which they want to connect to your systems<\/p>\n\n\n\n 81% of hacking related breaches leverage either stolen or weak passwords, and 73% of breaches are financially motivated<\/p>\n\n\n\n Author – Barbi Goldblatt – Regional Executive<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Almost all companies are computerized. In fact, many organizations have dropped the \u201cdigital\u201d word from their lexicon, because it is assumed that if it\u2019s business, then it\u2019s also digital. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":7525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whitepapers"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
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