In days of old, towns used to build walls behind which they gathered their family, friends, and business partners to stand against the onslaught of attackers from afar. The landscape we operate in today is much the same. However it is digital, not physical forts that we need to build. And in the same way that you wouldn’t leave the drawbridge over your moat down, so too do you need to seal off potential avenues of entry when cyber-attackers have you under siege.
A strong fort is not just your organization, which is your castle, protected behind high walls. In the age of AI attacks, if the village around you goes down, so does your castle. Therefore you need to arm your villagers, this is, your suppliers, your employees, and business partners with the knowledge and tools that they need to defend themselves. After all, they are often at the forefront of the onslaught that is targeting your organization.
Adopting this inclusive approach could mean that your capital outlay for your digital defense extends beyond the single corporate licenses that you had become accustomed to paying for your anti-virus, firewall, and associated security measures. Instead, you need to identify the outlying areas where you are most vulnerable.
Your employees. Do they know about phishing and social engineering attacks, or are they about to lower the drawbridge to the hooded attacker wearing the company uniform, yet who do not know the right passwords? If they picked up the phone and called the individual to confirm a request for data, they might avoid freely handing information over to disguised assailants.
Your suppliers. Are their employees educated on the potential perils associated with handling your sensitive data? Are their systems updated at the same rate as yours? Beyond them agreeing to this documented fact, have you tested this and assured yourself that all potential loopholes have been plugged? Otherwise they might be standing at the back of your fort with a wide open window through which attackers could find a way to your well-guarded castle.
Then we have your partners. Organizations and individuals that you may engage with fleetingly or for short-term projects. When you worked on that short term project, did you enter your personal details on their portal? How secure was the information they collected? Did they share it with anybody else, perhaps for marketing purposes? In that case, they could just be distributing the family silver on your behalf, and you could be none the wiser.
Online scams, ransomware and business email compromise are among the continent’s major cyberthreats. These incidents can affect critical infrastructure, corporate and government databases, while disrupting essential services and compromising sensitive information.
These kind of data breaches have recently occurred across multiple sectors. In healthcare, patient records were stolen from Ampath Laboratories (https://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/672153-attackers-claim-to-have-stolen-80-million-south-african-patient-records-in-massive-ampath-laboratories-data-breach.html); in fashion, TFG experienced a business disruption that forced their systems offline (https://therecord.media/foschini-group-south-africa-cyber) ; and in the insurance industry, MIP Holdings had to inform their customers about a supplier breach that resulted in a leak of personal data (https://www.itweb.co.za/article/hollard-data-hits-dark-web-after-mip-hack/). Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the shark-fin circling around your moat.
As more AI tools are built and hackers test them to find out how easy it is to deploy these across your network, it is time for your organization to employ a unified approach. Perhaps this time when you order your copy of “Managing IT Suppliers : A Practical Guide To Vendor Management (https://exclusivebooks.co.za/products/9781041104155)”, you should consider starting a book-club with your suppliers and partners. See how you can work together to implement solutions that can take you a step closer to protecting your village and keeping your digital fort strong.
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