Managing Cybersecurity Awareness

Infosec Registered Assessor Program (IRAP) is an initiative to provide high-quality and independent Information and Communications Technology (ICT) security assessment to Government agencies and ICT Service Providers (including cloud service providers across SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) to government.

As the silly season is around the corner, distracted Australians are thinking more about the upcoming festivities and taking a much-deserved break with family and friends. As they should, however, cybercriminals don’t take a break and use this time of year to take advantage of unsuspecting individuals within organisations with targeted phishing attacks.

In this blog post, we provide 5 tips for spotting a phishing email to protect yourself and your organisation during the Christmas period.

Organisations originally created governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) programs in response to strict regulations and operational risks. However, this led to GRC operating in silos, with legal, finance and IT all operating independently. This approach often leads to a disconnect between organisational objectives and risk appetite and ultimately failed to deliver business value. 

Ransomware is the most concerning and dangerous type of malware that can cause severe financial and reputational damage. What separates it from other malware, is the word “ransom” which is a form of extortion. And cybercriminals are successfully using it to disrupt services and steal from Australian businesses and individuals. In fact, over the past 12 months, Australia has faced a 15 per cent increase in ransomware cyberattacks. 

The endpoint landscape is constantly evolving and keeping up can be a huge challenge. All it takes is for an end-user to download an unapproved application or for an operating system patch to not be successfully applied to create a new vulnerability. And every vulnerability on an endpoint provides an opportunity for an attacker to breach your system. Once they have gained access, they can misuse resources, steal data or block access to files and services. Without identifying and remediating vulnerabilities, you are leaving your network open to attack. This is where vulnerability management becomes a critical aspect in keeping your business secure. Vulnerability management is a strategy used to track, minimise, and ultimately eliminate vulnerabilities in your systems.

As the threat landscape continues to evolve, so do business risks and regulations. As such, many companies are looking to work with a cybersecurity partner to implement the necessary frameworks and technology to manage those risks. A solid GRC framework can help you to safeguard your data from threats, improve efficiencies and proactively conform to compliance requirements. However, navigating through different frameworks and standards to implement a holistic GRC program is a significant challenge. This is why finding the right security partner is vital. You need a partner that has technical expertise, is knowledgeable about compliance requirements and has strong project management skills.