It’s estimated that every 39 seconds, a hacker attacks. With this high level of risk, strategic changes can make your business more vulnerable. 

Cyber attacks can have many goals, but they tend to home in on what your company values the most. For example, cyber criminals may focus on taking the website of an e-commerce business offline as this will affect their revenue and reputation. Whereas if the target was a healthcare provider, then patient data may be the target as this would compromise patient confidentiality.

Prevention is better than cure, with the reputational damage of an attack having a long reaching effect on an organisation. IT and security teams should focus on the three core pillars of cyber security – people, technology, and estate – to ensure that everyone has the knowledge and ability to protect their organisation.

The supply chain can be another area of risk. A cyber attacker can hack one supplier and gain access to a multitude of other organisations with little effort.

Employee changes are another factor to consider with the risk of insider threat. Each new hire increases the security risk with the potential to click phishing links or failure to use a business VPN.

To prevent cyber attackers using your supply chain to gain access, suppliers should be screened to ensure that they match the same standards as your organisation in terms of security policies and practices.

Regular mandatory employee training can also help to counteract the risks brought about by new employees being added to the business.