Head of CyberSecurity Malaysia, Mohamed Anwer Mohamed Yusoff.
KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 (NNN-BERNAMA) — While the daily reminder on the mantra of keeping a password safe may sound simple and easy to enough to follow, in reality, oversights do happen and along with it online security breaches with severe consequences — monetary losses running into millions.
Indeed cyber crimes, whether stemming from a simple password attack or other more cleverly executed security breaches on individuals as well as businesses, have been rising not only steadily but have become technologically more sophisticated and difficult to trace.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report, has placed cyber-attacks and data breach and fraud as among the Top 10 global risks.
According to the report, numerous data breaches took place in 2018, with millions – if not billions – of people’s data affected, while cyber-attacks on both public and private institutions and businesses continued.
The trend is expected to continue this year, if not increase, the report said adding that this “reflects how new instabilities are being caused by the deepening integration of digital technologies into every aspect of life”.
Government regulations and penalties will help keep cyber crimes at bay as the responsibility will fall on companies to ensure the safety of their data online
So how important is the importance of protecting a password? Crucial, says cyber-security expert Mark Thomas, saying that there could not be enough reminders on the importance of basic security measures.
Underlining the importance of ensuring compliance with the very basics of security features whether a password or firewall in the realm of cyberspace, the Vice President of Cybersecurity at Dimension Data, Mark pointed out the instances of corporate disasters that had been traced to a simple oversight in security measure, such as a password leak.
“Employees are known to have even pasted their password on pieces of paper stuck to the computers,” said Mark during a round table session recently held here on “Dealing with Destructive Cyber Crime” organised by Dimension Data and NTT.
Prior to the round table session, Mark presented the Executive Guide to the NTT Security 2019 Global Threat Intelligence to participants of the forum.
Strategic Alliances / Business Development Executive at Cisco Abishek Bedi runs through with participants at the forum on the evolving threats in cyber space.
The guide, which provides insights and analysis from cybersecurity experts on the shifting threat landscape, is aimed at providing companies with the best practice guidance, and practical measures to bolster cybersecurity defences.
Pointing out some of the most prevalent threats, their impact and recommendations for defence, he also pointed out that more and more companies were beefing up their cybersecurity defences.
The round table session, attended by mostly heads of cybersecurity for companies, had on panel Kerry Singleton, Director of Cyber Security, Advanced Threat Solutions (ATS) APJC, Zachary Flom, Intelligence Services Manager, Recorded Future, Laurent Petroque, Partner SE Manager for APCJ, F5 and Mohamed Anwer Mohamed Yusoff, Head of CyberSecurity Malaysia.
The speakers drew on some of the most pressing cybersecurity threats that companies could face in the year ahead. These included mobile malware, cryptojacking, applications attacks, Internet of Things device threats.
–NNN-BERNAMA