In the era of digital transformation, many organizations find it a never-ending struggle to defend against rampant cybercrime. Preventative security is no match for today’s threat actors, yet the advanced cybersecurity capabilities that organizations need are beyond the level of maturity that small-to-midsize enterprises (SMEs) possess.

At the same time, the expanding attack surface makes the IT environment increasingly vulnerable. Identifying and managing vulnerabilities has become exponentially more complex with more devices joining the corporate network, a mobile workforce connecting to the network from anywhere, and applications moving to the cloud.

Given the limited in-house resources, the cybersecurity skills gap, and the rapidly growing number and sophistication of threats, it doesn’t surprise anyone that security teams can’t keep up.

In this kind of reality, a data breach or network outage is all but inevitable. And the result is not only loss of productivity and revenue but also potential liability, regulatory noncompliance, and reputational damage. The ripple effects of these consequences can last for years.

Organizations are starting to recognize the inherent challenges that come with the lack of advanced technology and professional experts on staff. The question then becomes: What is the answer to the dilemma they face?

In this article you’ll learn the basics about a type of cybersecurity strategy that hackers despise and that has grown by 200% in just the last 2 years.

Organizations that have a strong cybersecurity posture are not only leveraging technology but also investing heavily in changing behavior — moving away from fear-based tactics to those of healthy paranoia, where communication and repetition work in favor of building cybersecurity habits. 

While alternate forms of communication such as Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Slack, and other options, grow in popularity, email remains and will not disappear  for any organization, and cybercriminals know this. In fact, most cyber-attacks start over email—a user is tricked into opening a malicious attachment, or into clicking a malicious link and divulging credentials.

With the first quarter of 2020 almost halfway done, growth strategies for the new year are well underway. For a manufacturer, this might mean launching new products or expanding to new markets. Either of those two strategies requires significant investment in time and money. 

If someone asked you, “what’s it like to work at [your company]?”, what would you reply? I suppose it depends on your role, how long you’ve worked there and the impression you want to relay, but it’s safe to assume that some aspect of your answer would include elements of culture.

“Culture” can seem like a fuzzy concept, but it’s definition does help pin to unpack it.

“Culture is the total way of life of particular groups of people. It includes everything that a group of people thinks, says, does and makes — its systems, attitudes and feelings. Culture is learned and transmitted from generation to generation.”

In this post we’re talking about an important subset of corporate culture; we’re analyzing and providing tips on how to shape “attitudes” and “behaviors” towards cybersecurity.

We know that in today’s digital workplace, flexibility is essential to retain our best employees, but this flexibility comes at a cost. Employees have more access to customer data and proprietary information from a variety of applications and devices that can also be  entry points for malicious attacks. What are you doing to protect against these internal threats?

Let's say you were in line at a deli and you overheard someone ask "hey, what the heck is a vulnerability assessment anyway?"

Would you feel an urge to chime in or strain to hear the reply? 

Okay, if it were me, I'd probably be more concerned about which sandwich to order but the point is that answers to that question vary widely.

Manufacturing has played a major role in Connecticut’s economy for many generations.

In fact, according to the CBIA, not only does manufacturing account for 11% of CT's GDP, but for every manufacturing job created, four other jobs generate as a result!

In our conversations with manufacturers, several challenges keep resurfacing that we want to address in this blog.

Challenges such as:

How can manufacturers attract more millennials?

What security changes, if any, do manufacturers need to consider with more millennials?

And, how are manufacturers creating work environments that increase millenial retention?

In this blog, we’ll share tips for all three of these important concerns.

Let’s dive in!