The last few years have presented cybersecurity professionals with a host of new threats and created major problems for senior management. Cybersecurity specialists are in high demand and short supply. The largest organizations will probably be able to acquire the necessary employees, but how will smaller organizations and SMBs be able to protect their data and inspire customer confidence? Let’s begin by reviewing some key facts and strategies.

An estimated 35 percent of all malware ever created emerged in 2014, which got 2015 off to a difficult beginning. New threats are emerging daily so you cannot let your guard down in 2016.   Cyber threats are now commonplace, so complacency is also becoming an issue. Employee training and careful supervision of your management team is critical. Make sure that everyone has a clear understanding of their role in the cybersecurity structure, and reinforce the fact that vigilance is more important than ever before.

Emphasizing the basics is essential. Password and encryption policies should be stringent and vigorously enforced. Restrict data access to essential users, and be stingy when granting those privileges. Once granted, organizations rarely revoke privileges, so a policy of requiring managers to recertify users on a regular basis is strongly recommended. Data accessibility by personal and mobile devices, whether operated on-site or remotely, should be preapproved and registered with your cybersecurity team.  

Smaller organizations will have difficulty managing some of the security requirements due to the cost and skills required. Here is where hosted and managed services can be essential to a company’s survival. Cybersecurity is a great fit for the managed services model. The provider can leverage its customer base to spread the cost over many accounts, allowing them to afford first class cybersecurity specialists. By outsourcing some or all of their cybersecurity management, their customers can then concentrate on their core business.

Regardless of the size of your organization, you need to stay current with cybersecurity issues, and TMC (News - Alert) provides the perfect resource. Visit www.tmcnet.com daily, and pay particular attention to the online communities like Cloud Security, IoT Connectivity Solutions, and SIP Trunking. TMCnet’s Online Communities are a great resource for uncovering other players with similar security interests. Cloud Computing magazine and IoT Evolution magazine also reinforce the value of developer communities working together to help each other. 

Max Schroeder is vice president Emeritus of FaxCore (News - Alert) Inc. (www.faxcore.com). Rich Tehrani is the CEO and group editor-in-chief at TMC (www.tmcnet.com), and conference chairman of ITEXPO.