Cybersecurity is a larger issue than we think

From governments and large corporations to any given individual with sensitive material on their laptop, cybersecurity is a serious matter that must not be taken lightly. All it takes is one forgetful mistake and you open yourself, your company, or your government up to cyberattacks. And, as you can imagine, the damage from this can be considerable. For this reason, cybersecurity specialists have become an essential part of many organizations, protecting their valuable data. But their job is more than just making sure company employees regularly update their passwords — they constantly tackle large issues in cybersecurity.

Here are 3 major cybersecurity issues they must regularly tackle for the remainder of 2020:

1. Phishing emails

Phishing through emails entails a hacker contacting an individual or individual by email and posing as a legitimate institution to lure them into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords. 

Unfortunately, there is no clear solution to this problem. Email requires open lines of communication, so educating employees helps, but it is no guarantee. In Europe, however, they have taken steps in the right direction regarding this — EU agencies approved the Cybersecurity Act to support member nations against these types of attacks. This act allows for the wider spread of information on new ways hackers can use phishing attacks and where organizations may be vulnerable. The rest of the world needs to follow this lead.

2. A.I. and Machine Learning devices are not safe

Because artificial intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning (ML) devices or services must be trained, the best ones are created and managed off-site. This means it’s not a company’s cybersecurity specialist that is training these devices and giving them their algorithm — the process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.

This leaves these devices vulnerable to attacks from hackers. And these attacks can be especially damaging because hackers can poison the algorithm of these devices and make it appear as if they are working correctly while they are giving users the wrong results. For this, also, there is no clear solution.

3. The cloud must be protected

Many organizations are moving their data to the cloud — servers that are accessed over the internet, and the software and databases that run on those servers. But they are doing so without making sure their data is secured when they are moving it and once it has been placed on those servers. This leaves their data — which often contains extremely sensitive information — unprotected in the cloud and open to attacks.

One way to tackle this issue is to look to other companies that are implementing solutions that provide cloud visibility and that are actually coordinating security policies to prevent attacks. Data encryption —  translating data into another form, or code, so that only people with access to a secret key or password can read it — will also be essential.

Main takeaways

While these issues are not particularly new —  phishing has been a headache for many since the 1980s and the cloud has been raising concerns ever since it became a consumer product — it’s the rate at which they are developing and changing shape that gives them a 2020 twist. The main recourses for companies will be the implementation of laws that punish those who violate their data and also to take the protection of their data very seriously themselves and take the necessary steps to do so. 

But they must be fast.