Following the news from Accenture announcing that one in three corporate cyberattacks succeed, Richard Parris, CEO of British cybersecurity company, Intercede commented below.
Richard Parris, CEO at Intercede:
“Accenture’s report that one-third of targeted attempts to breach corporations’ cyber defences succeed is alarming, but more worrying is that 98 percent of breaches are reported by employees outside the security team. It’s the security team’s bread and butter to be able to identify and address cyber breaches as, and when, they happen – after the event is often too late as sensitive customer and company information has been leaked and shared online. Security professionals need to know who and what is trying to access their network and data in order to be able to defend against attack.
“Unfortunately too much time is still spent ‘mopping up’ after a breach in many businesses. With the continued reliance by many companies on insecure username and passwords to protect valuable data, it is an almost impossible task for the security team to keep track of who and what is accessing the network. But it doesn’t need to be this way – there are infinitely more secure identity management solutions available that will enable the CISO to know that if employee ‘X’ is logging onto the network, that it is the real employee ‘X’, and not an imposter.
“One of the big challenges in the UK is for the Government to lead by example. There are very sophisticated approaches and technologies being used by other governments around the world to make sure only authorised individuals and machines can access highly sensitive data. Phillip Hammond’s announcement that an extra £1.9bn will be invested in Britain’s cybersecurity strategy is welcome news, but the Government now needs to ensure it puts its rhetoric into action and set the standard for cyber security in the UK.”
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