Section 3: The Evolution of the Cyber Challenge

Section 3: Evolution of the Cyber Challenge

Over the last two years, the rapid digital transformation has implied the shift from fixed to mobile workstations and exposed issues on data protection and the need to safeguard personal data and increase cybersecurity.

Today, awareness around cybersecurity and data protection is higher than it has ever been in the past, particularly for managers where our earlier research, The Conscious Workplace report, found that 1/5 of managers were worried about the security of their network connections. So, what should businesses be doing to increase security?

Customer Focus
St Bede’s School

OVERVIEW:

Although it has not happened St Bede’s School explain what a ransomware attack might mean for the school

“Think of all the applications, files and data about out pupils on our servers. All of that would go down and, for instance, we wouldn’t know if a child has an allergy or needed specialist care. That would impact learning and severely limit our ability to keep the children safe and secure.”

Samuel Alexander-Omoh, IT Manager, St Bede’s School

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USING POLICY TO SAFEGUARD DATA

Our roundtable discussion found that a safe and transparent policy is needed, especially when working from home and in the public sector. In this regard, Tony Roberts of Sedbergh School underlined that one of his big concerns “is not only the security of networks and systems, but also data. We, as a school, are very heavily regulated in safeguarding issues for children and have people management systems that contain sensitive information. The security of data and working remotely is always a very big concern.”

And it was agreed that a possible solution could be to secure more resources, both monetary and in terms of training to provide for better productivity and invest more in cybersecurity and data protection.

Accordingly, many of the attendees also agreed on the lack of a structured and robust policy and governance to protect employees/users’ data. Attendees were aligned on the view that data governance will become key to increasing awareness and for cultural change amongst users. Especially if you want to ensure the information you are storing is secure. Believing that it is necessary to make sure people clearly understand the rules of engagement around tech and hybrid working.

IMPROVEMENT OF TRAINING, TOOLS AND CONCISENESS

To this, our attendees reported the need to provide adequate training around managing patches in a remote environment and better management of bandwidth capabilities and physical equipment, stating that certain areas might need to be enhanced further.

As Tony Roberts from Sedbergh School added,

“I think certain areas might need to be enhanced further. With more remote working, we get more demands on VPN. We need to bolster more training for staff working remotely and certainly make them much more aware of cybersecurity and data security. And I think that those are the main issues.”

Not only does this tie in with earlier calls for greater training to ensure businesses are equipped for the ever-changing cyber-security landscape, but it also reflects the need to mould company culture. Effectively, a new culture around technology will need to emerge where employees understand and can anticipate the organisation's strategic objectives to limit shock and errors.