In a world where business thrives, there’ll always be a bump on the road. There are so many factors to look into, if you want your business to thrive. One of these main factors revolve around the importance of cybersecurity and IT security solutions.
Many business holders seem to confuse the two as being the same, and tend to overlook cybersecurity and what it represents for a successful business. Yes, cybersecurity and IT security stem from the same tree, but each of them branch out into different directions, adhering to different bumps on the same path to success.
Now, when talking about security measures in a workplace, what comes to your mind? For the most of us, it means considering IT security; protecting all the sensitive information, which if leaked to external sources, could damage the incentives of the business.
But, “What about the protection of devices and online privacy at a workplace? Isn’t that important too?”
In this article we’ll discuss the difference between Cybersecurity and IT security, and why cybersecurity is just as important for business to thrive.
Before moving on with the importance of adding notice to cybersecurity in a workplace, let’s first talk about what each of them represent.
What is IT security?
IT security, short for information technology security, is mainly framed around the protection of information though high-tech means. Meaning, all the data you have access to that provides meaning. IT security is propagated around 3 underlying principals termed as the CIA of information security, which are:
- Confidentiality – ensuring that the data or sensitive information is at all costs confidential, protected, and free from being accessed by any anyone who’s not under any authorization. If any third-parties try to access secured information, they’ll immediately be met with blocks through certain security measures.
- Integrity –this means not only securing data, but making sure that all data stays and preserves its original form. This ensures that no amount of hacker or malicious website can infiltrate your device and meddle with your legal and sensitive information.
- Availability – a counterpart of confidentiality, is availability. Protection of data from external sources also means making sure that users with authorization have access to it. A part of its security means making sure that all data is backed up and easy to recover, if ever lost.
What is Cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity can be defined as the protection of data, your device, your privacy and much more. The thing is cybersecurity is much similar to information security, but the fact that it all comes down to is that not every bit of data is labeled as information.
If you think about cybersecurity, and break up the words, what do you understand by it? The protection of all things cyber; of all things online. The main target of cybersecurity is to ensure that you, your device and data aren’t infiltrated by malicious means. It can be anything really. Cybersecurity breaks into many sub-parts, most of which are software designed to protect your online privacy and much more.
This is why cybersecurity is so important for business, and should be considered as important as IT security. We’ll get to that a little later on.
Some of the main parts of cyber security are:
- Cloud security
- Network security
- Application security
- Critical infrastructure security
- IoT security (Internet of Things)
Cybersecurity and IT security – The correlation
Now that you have a slight idea regarding the difference between the two, it’s much easier to see that both cybersecurity and IT security are equally important for business. It cannot be one or the other. The dire importance of Information Technology is so huge, that it managed to expand its meaning; its concept, over the years.
It doesn’t just revolve around the protection of simple data, but rather strategizing and engineering data into tight groups, wavering into fulfilling numerous security tasks. It predicts the sustainability and future of business in the long haul.
Now, because IT security is so vast on its own, many businesses/workplaces tend to overlook basic cybersecurity means. Yes, both are different, but, they do go hand-in-hand where overall security is concerned. Each is a subset to each other and when combined, delivers the future and security of information security.
Why cybersecurity is as important in a workplace
When you’re running a business, you cannot just leave the business to run on its own. It takes much more than luck and money to get your company to bloom. Cyber and Information security go side by side to make sure the all-round success of the business reaches up to par. Everything considerations like, who you hire to run the operations right up to measures taken to secure every bit of data that makes or breaks your company; all go under the microscope.
You can’t pick and choose which kind of security to go for. In the age where cyber-attacks are the number one causes for businesses to go into great loss, it’s important that you consider options for secure ways to blocks out future invasions.
Cybersecurity is as important as IT security in a workplace because it deals with the theft, meddling and damage of attacks towards all that classified data you were protecting. It’s the starting point of securing your work environment.
For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, many employees were sent to work from home. They may have taken along office equipment, like phones, drives, or laptops. Home security is much different as compared to the security in an office setting. It’s less guarded. Secondly you might even connect to a local WiFi source just because it was free. All of these factors play a big part in a business coming crashing down.
There are thousands of cyber-attacks a day, all of which strike smaller businesses that lead to bigger fish. Every business in the world is surprisingly interconnected in some way or the other, be it through partnership or through personal lives of the employer and employees.
For instance –
“Person A” works at an IT company, they partnered up with another vendor “Person B” overseas. “Person B” handles classified files of their clients. “Person B” was sent to work from home, and cybersecurity was extremely weak in their home setting. They transferred all their clients files into a laptop wasn’t heavily guarded. “Person B” uses the same laptop for leisurely needs, like online shopping, or watching online movies.
He/she stumbles upon a website and clicks on an unknown link that wasn’t easily detected as a virus or a scam. One simple click on an unknown link can send hackers through your system, hacking both data from “Person B’s” workplace and with addition of personal data from “Person A” that was stored on the laptop.
It’s a continuous downward spiral for businesses, if proper cybersecurity and Information security aren’t practiced.
Simple kinds of cybersecurity measures that can be taken
The level and variations of cyber-attacks have increased and developed greatly over the course of time. According to another source, there were around 4.1 billion records exposed by the first half of 2019 alone. The most common kinds were data breaches and 85% of attacks were exposed through phishing scams and social engineering attacks.
Although you can’t do a whole lot for the security of your company, since the rise in many kinds of attacks, but who said you can’t play your part to slow down the process?
Following are the simple cybersecurity measures your business can look into:
- Educate your employees on the importance of cybersecurity. Show them what can go wrong without it, through personal examples.
- Anonymize sensitive data and provide access to a very limited number of trusted individuals.
- Backup large amounts of sensitive data, and dispose of the ones that aren’t needed. However, always make sure that every file you delete stays deleted.
- There should be only two data protection officers appointed. Too many can heighten security and privacy risks.
- Invest in the best and renowned security software to protect your devices and online privacy.
- Make sure employees don’t use office equipment for social purposes, like media or movies.
To conclude
So, what have we gone through so far? The importance of IT and cybersecurity are of dire need in a workplace. In fact it doesn’t matter how small or how powerful your business is. Cybercriminals strike anywhere and everywhere, especially is they find any leaks of vulnerabilities in your security systems. Always remember to conduct a little research and learn about the best ways to inculcate both cybersecurity and IT security into your workplace. Smaller steps are the ultimate roads to success!