Wichita, Kan. — (December 11, 2020) — Kevin Colborn, High Touch’s Senior Vice President of Network Operations and CIO, was recently featured in the Wichita Business Journal (WBJ) article, Cybersecurity Q&A: What Covid-19 has Meant to IT Security.
Alongside James Smith, President of Twotrees Technologies LLC, Colborn provided expert commentary on the current state of cybersecurity, COVID-19’s effect on business cybersecurity, remote work technology, and the future of information systems and cybersecurity.
Understanding Business Cybersecurity
There are a few different analogies cybersecurity experts use to explain how cybersecurity works. You may be familiar with the house or castle and kingdom example to visualize how the different layers of cybersecurity work together to keep businesses safe.
In the article, Colborn illustrates cybersecurity as a stack of swiss cheese. “Cybersecurity relies on multiple layers of protection to be effective. Each layer, unfortunately, has its weak points, which need to be reinforced by other layers. The easiest way to imagine this approach to cybersecurity is to picture a stack of sliced swiss cheese,” states Colborn. “While each layer has some holes, you can keep covering up the holes as you stack more layers on top. Unfortunately, as technology advances, hackers keep finding smaller and sneakier holes in enterprise cybersecurity systems.”
Multilayered cybersecurity solutions
When it comes to the COVID-19 era workplace, the multilayered cybersecurity approach is more essential than ever. Likewise, with a dispersed remote workforce, businesses should be relying on additional tools to protect equipment from cyberattacks.
“In the recent past, a typical office might leverage a firewall, anti-virus, email security, and other safety measures for protection,” states Colborn. “In current environments, and especially when employees are distributed on residential connections, the cybersecurity framework for businesses looks very different. Tools like Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), which monitors for cybersecurity threats in real-time based on system behavior and monitored by a security operations center (SOC), or DNS blocking, which prohibits access to particular websites, are becoming more relevant to protect equipment and data.”
Security Awareness Training (SAT)
Additionally, Colborn underscores the importance of Security Awareness Training for employees. According to Colborn, “During this training, employees learn about the risks of sharing personal information online and how to navigate our digital world safely and vigilantly…Focusing on security awareness training can help businesses stay ahead of cyberattacks by informing employees on how to recognize threats and how best to avoid them with best practices.”
Working From Home, COVID-19, and Cybersecurity
With a significant percentage of the U.S. population working from home, new types of cyber threats have become more prevalent. In the article, Colborn calls attention to phishing attacks and the vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit through virtual collaboration platform to take advantage of underinformed employees.
“We’re spending much more time on virtual collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom, and we’re sharing more information online more often. Since it’s become more common to share information through these platforms, we’ve become more comfortable giving the data away, which has unfortunately made people more susceptible to phishing attacks,” states Colborn.
High Touch Helps Keep Businesses Safe.
When it comes to cybersecurity, you want experts like Kevin in your business’s corner. High Touch can offer companies cybersecurity solutions, technology consulting services for cybersecurity, and cybersecurity solutions with a specific focus on remote workplaces. Contact us today to learn more about cybersecurity solutions for your business.