Challenges In Cyber Security For Business: An Essay On The Risks And Solutions.

The Technological Advancement and Challenges of Cyber Security

Question:

What are the Challenges in Cyber Security for Business?

Cyber security refers to the group of technologies, practices and technologies that are meant for protecting computers programs, networks and computer data from external attack, unexpected damage or even forbidden access through cyber-crime (Margaret Rouse 2017). It is the measures organizations have taken to protect their confidential information from external attacks by cyber criminals that may results in tempering with the important information.

It is now a reality that in the contemporary world, businesses and organizations are moving away from the manual systems of storing data and information. New technologies have emerged to facilitate easy management of information, and quick flow of information through technological computer networks. This has made organizational activities much complex and easier; there has been increased rate of operation as the work processes are sped up, and also reducing workloads that used to accompany the previous manual work operational systems.

But everything good comes with its negative side of the coin. In this information age, as much as most firms are advancing into new technologies, there have been challenges as well that pose a threat in their goals of computerizing the organizational work processes. These problems are technological in the name of cybercrime. Cyber-crime is the situation whereby a computer network is used as a place, a tool or a target for criminal activities (The Department of Commerce 2011). Cyber-crimes have posed big challenges to most firms as their valuable information has been encroached into, leading to loses and damages. This has necessitated creation of cyber security measures to curb on these criminal activities, but there have always been challenges in trying to implement these security measures.

A lot has been written regarding the field of cyber security; how best it can be implemented, and the challenges it faces in ensuring maximum security for the organization. There are various contrasting views about this field of study by various authors. Some authors have tried to deeply analyze the cyber security area to try bringing to light the extent to which it is of essential use for many organizations and the hardships of implementing it.

According to (Kostyuk 2014), cyber-crime is a global problem that has ravaged a lot of organizations from America to Europe to Africa. Big global technological corporations such as Apple and Microsoft have all been the victims of cyber security with their systems being hacked into by the notorious network of cyber criminals. The prospect of cyber security infiltrators to break into highly secure organizations such as Microsoft spills a lot of worry to medium-size corporations and confirms the fact that cyber security is a global menace that requires extensive measures in order to combat (Brookes 2015).

To successfully tackle this issue of cyber-crime and fully implement successful cyber security measures, the national governments need to invest enough efforts in fighting the crime. According to (Moens, Cushing & Dowd 2015), governments have a duty to provide cyber security to their citizens and that if the national security declined in the cyber space, there would be increased threats to life and personal properties. Therefore, as much as organizations and businesses are required to take necessary measures to protect their information from external attacks by the cyber criminals, the governments do also have a very crucial role of creating effective cyber security measures that would ensure a favourable and threat free operating environment for the business investors and organizations.

Challenges Posed by Cyber-Crime

 The most emerging trend in the fight against cyber-crime is the holistic approach (Tisdale 2015); (Atoum, Otoom & Abu Ali 2014). Previously, most countries had their own ways, means and measures of tackling cyber security issues, and others even perceived it as a non-issue given that they had not experienced frequent threatening cyber-attacks. According to (Kostyuk 2014), Czech Republic witnessed numerous countries coming under heavy cyber-attacks on their big corporations, but never thought of their turn until the year 2013, when cyber-crime hit them hard.

Many countries are realizing the importance of approaching the challenges of cyber security together as it poses more threat, not just on individual nations, but most nations are affected. Globalization has brought about the internet and almost every organization has adopted internet in their daily operations, and this diversity needs international collaboration to implement proper cyber security measures (Sendelj et al. n.d.). With emergency of dangerous extremist activities such as terrorism, most nations see the need to control the widespread of such practices, as terrorism is closely related to cyber-crime.

But with this approach of togetherness, the major challenge in cyber security affecting most organizations across the world is the proper methods of providing technically-relevant training that can directly tackle cyber security threats (Silva et al. 2014). According to (Childers et al. 2010), one of the best and emerging ways to handle this is by engaging in competitive exercises. When devising a competition-based exercise for cyber security activities, one of the considerations organizers may have is presenting the students with what they can handle in relation to their expertise, therefore being able to challenge the experienced professionals while not overwhelming the inexperienced participants (Werther et al. 2011). All these are activities are aimed at improving cyber security execution skills.

Since cyber security is a complicated contemporary issue affecting various businesses and organizations all over the world, it has become so hard for the writers to nail down all the issues surrounding the area of cyber security. Numerous writers have had different views about this topic, some contrasting views others in agreement, but what remains clear is that there remains largely  unexploited loopholes in the cyber security literature especially in regard to effects it directly have to individual business organizations.

(van den Berg et al. n.d.) States that, modernization has made society so dependent on the Information technology, and businesses in the modern twenty first century can rarely do without technology and computer-based work operations which have got its numerous challenges posed as threats of cyber security breaches. Many literature works however, do not offer solutions and remedies that are specifically applicable for the effects of cyber-crime within the organization rather they tackle the cyber security issue generally as a whole without narrowing it down on how it may internally affect organizational operations or cause financial losses.

According to (Australian Government 2009), the world at large has continued experiencing non-stop penetration of sophisticated and successful cyber-crime activities due to increased amount and value of electronic based information. This affects business organizations greatly just like any other sensitive sectors in any country. Therefore, a broader look at specific organizational cyber security threats and the remedies for ensuring maximum protection for the information is an important aspect most literary works have failed to point out when tackling the cyber security topic. It is important to note that there is still a wider area in organizational business structure that is yet to be covered because of generalization by the authors.

Role of Governments in Providing Cyber Security

Just like (Gunes et al. 2010) illustrated the connection between cyber systems and the physical world, there are less literature works about cyber security that illustrates its implementation in the business organizations. Less is known about the applicability of cyber security measures for most organizations as they still fall prey to cyber-crimes with less attention. A more detailed organizational-based approach in the analysis of cyber security is more important in understanding the effects of cyber security in business terms.

While most literature works try to view cyber security issues in terms of dangers of terrorism and threats to the government information, very few have come out to address the large amount of money, individual organizations are losing in the business sector as well as information distortion and other damages. According to (The Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force 2011), the amount of internet threats have grown fast, therefore, there is a need for formulating security policies to evolve faster in and stay ahead of these threats. But all these are not explained in the organizational context; therefore, gripping together all the aspects that revolve around how challenging cyber security is to businesses is the most fundamental thing.

A lot can be argued about the authors’ point of view on the cyber security topic but the open talking point is their lack of narrowing down the cyber security discussion to organizational level and how it could pose a threat to the organizational business operations. Furthermore, there is a literature gap concerning the challenges facing businesses in implementation of cyber security. This gap presents an opportunity for more research and analysis, as most writers tend to tackle similarly relatable issues when it comes to cyber security issues.

Conclusion

Cyber security is a growing problem for most businesses as they try to come up with measures on how to correctly adopt it. With proper cyber security, the important information within the organization is kept safe and secure, reducing the risk of financial losses as in the case of the banking institutions, including other damages. The increased rate of cyber-crime within the cyber space has put most businesses at a bigger risk, as the internet has grown full of many hackers who spend day and night trying to break into organizational systems. Businesses are now at bigger risk as any small security breach could present the opportunity for the cyber criminals to exploit. Businesses have tried so hard to create security measures addressing cyber security shortcomings, yet cyber criminals still find a way to hack into confidential information.

According to (Deshpande & Sambhe 2014) cyber security has three main principals, that is, Confidentiality, availability and Integrity. Sensitive information should remain confidential and only shared among the right people to avoid any leakages that may present criminals with the opportunity to strike. The information should also be available for those who need it within organization and finally, it should always have the integrity and should not be altered from its original state.

Regardless of the current cyber security situations and the efforts the governments have put in, it remains clear that there is still a long way to go in implementing cyber security at organizational level. According to (Brookes 2015), it is very impossible for the government to provide cyber security for the whole public including businesses, but it has a role in formulating cyber security policies and implementing them as the only main prevention measure for the businesses. The rest of the task now remains on the organization’s shoulders internally.

References

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Australian Government 2009, 'Cyber Security Strategy', Government Report.

Brookes, C 2015, 'Cyber Security: Time for an integrated whole-of-nation approach in Australia', Indo-Pacific Strategic Papers, pp. 1-33.

Childers, N, Boe, B, Cavallaro, L, Cavedon, L, Cova, M, Egele, M & Vigna, G 2010, Organizing large scale hacking competitions. In Detection of Intrusions and Malware, and Vulnerability Assessment , Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Deshpande, VJ & Sambhe, R 2014, 'Cyber Security: Strategy to Security Challenges- A Review ', International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT) , vol III, no. 9, pp. 290-292.

Gunes, V, Pete, S, Givargis, T & Vahid, F 2010, 'A Survey on Concepts, Applications, and Challenges in Cyber-Physical Systems ', KSII Transactions On Internet And Information Systems , vol X, no. 10, pp. 134-159.

Kostyuk, N 2014, 'International and Domestic Challenges to Comprehensive National Cybersecurity: A Case Study of the Czech Republic', Journal of Strategic Security, vol VII, no. 1, pp. 68-82.

Margaret Rouse 2017, 'Cybersecurity', WhatIs.com.

Moens, A, Cushing, S & Dowd, AW 2015, cybersecurity challenges For Canada And The United States, Fraser Institute.

Sendelj, R, Lombardi, F, Ognjanovic, I & Guarino, S, 'Cyber Security in Montenegro: Practice, Frameworks, and Challenges'.

Silva, A, McClain, J, Reed, T, Anderson, B, Nauer, K, Abbott, R & Forsythe, C 2014, 'Factors Impacting Performance in Competitive Cyber Exercises ', Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC.

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Tisdale, SM 2015, 'Cybersecurity: Challenges From A Systems, Complexity, Knowledge Management And Business Intelligence Perspective ', Issues in Information Systems , vol XVI, no. 3, pp. 191-198.

van den Berg, J, van Zoggel, J, Snels, M, van Leeuwen, M, Boeke, S, van de Koppen, L, van der Lubbe, J, van den Berg, B & de Bos, T, 'On (the Emergence of) Cyber Security Science and its Challenges for Cyber Security Education ', NATO UNCLASSIFIED RELEASABLE TO PFP.

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