Challenges In Cyber Security For Business: Identifying And Addressing The Key Issues Essay.

The Significance of Cyber Security for Businesses

Question:

Discuss about the Challenges in Cyber Security for Business.

The project report is on the topic ‘Challenges in Cyber Security for Business’. Cyber security is the common problem worldwide with the growing use of technology. The problem is not just limited to an organisation but it is the global issue. There are many challenges which are to be faced by the organisations in coping up with the problems of Cyber security. Privacy and data protection are severe concerns for the organisations because the leakage of data and misuse can lead to severe consequences for the business. That is why, organisations nowadays are spending heavy amount on the security of their data and operations from the intruders. Nowadays most of the organisations operate online and maintain their data on online platforms. They need to take steps so that they can save their own data and information and of the customers. There are many examples in which the innocent customers became the part of the fraudulent charges without having any knowledge about it (Chertoff, 2008).

The research focuses on such incidents and challenges which the companies and customers have to face for maintaining cyber security in business. The research follows a procedure and the report prepared will clear that what all techniques will be used to conduct the research.

The key objective of the research is to identify the cyber security challenges for business and how to address them. These challenges are faced by the organisations at a global level. The project is not limited to the discussion of challenges of cyber security but it will also discuss that what all alternatives are available to meet these challenges. The project aims at finding out the solutions to the problems which the organisations are facing in the present business environment.

The scope of the project is wide. It is because to address the cyber securities for business, it will be required to focus on the organisational level and on the industry level, globally.  Also, the concepts will be discussed which will be used to address these challenges. The project has wider scope as it widens the horizon of knowledge as to how the businesses can be made safer and more secure. Technology is nowadays an integral part of the operations of the business which can also pose threats for the business information and operations. The companies have to tackle such threats in order to compete in the business environment.

Challenges in Cyber Security for Business

This section of the research will provide the data information on the topic ‘Challenges in Cyber Security for Business’. Cyber security is one of the key challenges of the business organisations in the current competitive business environment. This is because, today, technology is rapidly developing and is used by almost every organisation for managing their operations and functions well. The increase in the use of technological devices like internet, mobiles, computers, laptops and others has led to more attacks and challenges to the business. Various cyber-attacks have been experienced in past few years which are been cured by using a security mechanism by the organisations (Donaldson, et al., 2015).

Cyber security is when the digital information and property of the companies are protected against the misuse and theft by the intruders. This can be done by following the protection and information systems. This has become a serious management issue nowadays. Cyber security is facing certain challenges in the industry which is the increased growth in data from the business systems (Gharibi & Shaabi, 2012).

In accordance with Kaplan, Sharma & Weinberg (2011), technology has now become an essence of the business. It brings growth and development to the business but like everything has two aspects, technology also has some side effects. It affects the security of the business data. Cybercrime has grown to a great extent and it is affecting the privacy and security of data. To face cybercrime, cyber security is important but has to face certain challenges like lack of funding from the government, shortage of personnel, less access to knowledge about the same and the ignorance by the business about cybercrime (Lord, 2017).  One has to be updated about the cybercrime as it can damage the whole data of the business. The employees need to be trained so that they can manage the cyber security issues in the organisation well. Some ethical issues arise with the employees. Once the employees resign from the organisation, they are bound to follow the code of conduct of the organisation. In that case, the employees are not bound to follow any code of conduct and requirements of the organisation because of which they might cheat on the organisation and may hack data. The employees who used to be ethical hackers become unethical hackers after they leave the organisation which pose threat to the organisations (Hall, 2016).

21^st century needs cyber security in every sphere as the technology is developing at a rapid pace. There are too many challenges to cyber security because of which the productivity of the businesses are degrading. The huge amount of money has to be invested in maintaining the security of the business data and information which could have been used for developing products and services and for any other purpose. There are some factors which led to the increasing threats and challenges to cyber security. These factors include the lack of leadership and collaboration, lack of information and knowledge about cybercrime, lack of regulations and laws against cybercrime, increased use of technology and internet, lack of funding and support from the government and many more. These factors need to be focussed in order to set up effective control on the cyber security challenges in business (Wright, Dawson and Omar, 2012).

Compliance: A Solution to Cyber Security Challenges

As per Smith & Cockburn (2014), the compliance can be used to sort out the challenges of cyber security. The organisations create code of conduct in form of compliance programs to set up and understanding of do’s and don’ts. The compliance programs are designed differently for different programs (Minick, 2016). The management of organisation design the compliance programs in order to face the challenges of cyber security. The compliance procedures are designed as per the roles and responsibilities of the organisation. The compliance procedures should be made with an aim to provide success to the organisation. These are the values which should be transferred to the employees. These define the success of the organisation (Subramanian, 2008).

As per ICGS3, et al. (2015), there is some compliances use in the cases of cyber security. These include IT Audit and compliance, Policies of IT, assessment and management of Information Technology. There are some companies which are working to protect global systems from cybercrime. The companies like Cisco have adopted a holistic approach to secure the organisational data. The organisations and employees are made aware about the policies and procedures so that they can follow them to get the benefit of the same. The organisations are also advised to use secured infrastructure so that they can perform their functions better. Compliances are significant in meeting the challenges of cyber security (Nojeim, 2010)

Privacy and data protection are of utmost importance for any organisation. For any organisation, data is an asset which is to be kept confidential so that no competitor can misuse it against the organisation. Data is important because it is used by the companies to take further business decisions. The companies need to protect data and maintain privacy so that no one can plot against the company by using the data of the organisation. According to Cyberics (2015), theft of data of the company may prove disastrous for the company because the data can be used to defame the image of the company.

The organisations can limit the challenges and issues of cyber security by providing the access of data to limited number of people. Strong passwords and authentication measures can be used for limiting the unauthorised access. The employees who are employed for maintain the cyber security in the organisations should be skilled and competent enough in comparison with the hackers.

It is also important to maintain third party data in an organisation.  The market today is very competent in terms of technology. The companies are opting for third party services like cloud competing so that the expertise can be gained in the services and the data cost can be reduced. Outsourcing the services to the third party can lead to serious harms and impacts on the security of data.  In this case, security teams should be employed which may take security measures and checks from time to time so that it can meet the vision and mission of the organisation (Khajuria, 2017).

Data Protection and Privacy

There is a lack of operational processes and procedures in the organisations because of which the cyber-attacks are affecting the organisations frequently. The organisations lack in setting up right rules in governing the cyber-attacks (Mehan, 2014). The IT professionals in the company have to come up with the procedures which save the organisation from getting attacked by the cyber criminals. The companies and the country as a whole should focus on designing the security systems and more IT professionals who can limit the challenges and threats posed to the cyber security of business (Tiwari, Bhalla & Rawat, 2016).

It can be concluded that it is the global technological war which harms business and industry as a whole. The companies should come up with the compliance programs and should adopt all the technical measures which allow business to meet the challenges of cyber security. The privacy of data should be maintained in order to be safe and secure for business future and for customers as well (Fischer, 2016). The work done by the third party should also be safeguarded through code of conduct and regular checks. The employees should be hired and trained for meeting the challenges of cyber security. There should be strong compliances for ethical and non-ethical hacking so that the wrong activities and intentions of the workers can be stopped before it disturbs the whole image of the company (Deore & Waghmare, 2016).

Countries like Australia, USA, UK, China, and many other big countries need to collaborate and fight against cybercrime as it is affecting the business at a global level as a whole.  The government needs to set up good policies and compliances which limits the activities of cybercrime.

The following questions are required to be answered with the completion of this research:

Primary Question

• What are the major cyber security challenges in business?

Secondary Questions

• How the cyber security challenges can be mitigated?

The section of research methodology contains the details about the methods and approaches adopted to complete the research on the given topic.

Research methods

Research methods which is used for this research is mixed method in which both the quantitative and qualitative data is collected and used. This data is further analysed and is used to answer the questions of the research (Greener, 2008).

Approach for research

For this research the data collected is in qualitative and in quantitative form which helps in deriving the better results for the research project. Qualitative data is collected in form of opinion of people and details from the secondary sources while the quantitative data is used collected in form of numbers. This helps the researcher in gaining proper understanding about the topic and hence, the research fulfils its objectives.

Third-Party Data and Security

Data gathering

The data for the research is gathered from various sources. These sources include Primary sources and secondary sources. Primary data is the one which is fresh and unused information while secondary data is the one which is used previously by others and is used as a reference to the topic and to support the primary data collected by the researcher. The primary data is collected through survey questionnaire where randomly 10 people are selected as a sample who works in an IT organisation and they asked about the cybersecurity and how safe it is for their organisations. The survey data is analysed to get the final results. Secondary data is collected from the published journals, articles, web sources and books. This data will finally represent that what are the challenges in cyber secutity of business and how it can be mitigated (Collis and Hussey, 2013).

Sampling

Sampling is when a subset of individuals is selected from the whole population to represent the whole population. Simple random sampling technique is adopted for selecting the sample respondents for the survey and the sample size is 10.

Validity and reliability of research

The research is valid as the responses are collected after taking proper approvals from the respondents. The data collected is saved from strong passwords so that no one can modify the data collected and misuse it. The identity of the respondents is also kept confidential. The data used is referenced clearly so that it can be shown that the data is genuine (Cavana, Delahaye and Sekaran, 2001).

The research limitations are those weak points which affected the research results and its process as a whole. The limitations of this research include the shortage of time because of which the sample respondents were selected in a small number i.e. 10. It might affect the actual results of the results with such a small sample. The time was limited because of which limited data was collected and analysed. The respondents might not provide the actual results and the results provided by them can be biased which affect the overall results of the research.

Time schedule is made for the research to complete it within the time. This is also called action plan.

It is the graphical representation of the research action plan which is used to complete the research on time.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that cyber security is essential for the business of today to maintain the privacy and secrecy of data. It is also important to maintain competitiveness in the industry. The organisations and the government together should take certain steps which set up the codes of conduct and compliances which safeguard the businesses from cyber security challenges. These challenges can be mitigated by training more employees and for using them to protect the systems and data of the business. The operations which are outsourced from the third party should be kept on check in order to keep it safe from cybercrime.  Young talent should be encouraged to get trained and contribute in the nation’s fight against cybercrime. There are different types of cyber security challenges which need to be addressed so that the company’s revenue does not get hit and the systems can be used without any risk of getting hacked and theft of data. It is the technological war which needs to be fought and certain standards need to be established at a local and national level so that the cybercrime can be dealt. The companies should focus on integrating the data and to adopt certain measures to address cyber security challenges sop that the country’s future can be saved.

References

Cavana, R.Y., Delahaye, B.L. and Sekaran, U., 2001. Applied business research: Qualitative and quantitative methods. John Wiley & Sons Australia.

Chertoff, M. 2008, "The cybersecurity challenge", Regulation & Governance, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 480-484.

Collis, J. and Hussey, R., 2013. Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave macmillan.

Cyberics (Workshop), Be?cue, A., Cuppens-Boulahia, N., Cuppens, F., Katsikas, S. K., & Lambrinoudakis, C. (2016). Security of industrial control systems and cyber physical systems: first Workshop, CyberICS 2015 and First             Workshop, WOS-CPS 2015 Vienna.

Deore, U D & Waghmare, V 2016, ‘A Literature Review on Cyber Security Automation for Controlling Distributed Data’, International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, Vol. 4, Issue 2.

Donaldson, S.E., Siegel, S.G., Williams, C.K., Aslam, A., SpringerLink (Online service) & Books24x7, I. 2015, Enterprise Cybersecurity: How to Build a Successful Cyberdefense Program Against Advanced Threats, 1st edn, Apress, Berkeley, CA.

Fischer, E A 2016, ‘Cybersecurity Issues and Challenges: In Brief’, Congressional Research Service.

Gharibi, W & Shaabi, M 2012, ‘Cyber Threats In Social Networking Websites’, International Journal of Distributed and Parallel Systems (IJDPS), Vol.3, No.1.

Greener, S., 2008. Business research methods. BookBoon.

Hall, P. 2016, "Smaller banks face cybersecurity challenges", Westchester County Business Journal, vol. 52, no. 46, pp. 15.

ICGS3 (Conference), Jahankhani, H., Carlile of Berriew, Akhgar, B., Taal, A., Hessami, A. G., & Hosseinian-Far, A. (2015) Global security, safety             and sustainability: tomorrow's challenges of cyber security: 10th International             Conference, ICGS3 2015, London, UK.      

Kaplan, J, Sharma, S & Weinberg, A 2011, ‘Meeting the cybersecurity challenge’, McKinsey & Company.

Khajuria, S. (2017) Cybersecurity and privacy - bridging the gap. River Publishers.

Lord, N 2017, ‘What is Cyber Security?’, Digital Guardian.

Minick, B. (2016) Facing cyber threats head on: protecting yourself and your business.

Nojeim, G T 2010, ‘Cybersecurity and Freedom on the Internet’, J. Nat'l Sec. L. & Pol'y, 4, p.119.

Smith, P. A. C., & Cockburn, T. (2014) Impact of emerging digital technologies on leadership in global business.

Subramanian, R. (2008) Computer security, privacy, and politics: current issues,     challenges, and solutions. Hershey, IRM Press.

Tiwari, S, Bhalla, A & Rawat, R 2016, ‘Cyber Crime and Security’, International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, Volume 6, Issue 4.

Wright, J, Dawson, M E and Omar, M 2012, ‘Cyber security and mobile threats: The need for antivirus applications for smart phones’, Journal of Information Systems Technology and Planning, 5(14), pp.40-60.