Introduction
In the current information age, we tend to find more and more people, corporations, businesses, and corporation becoming more interconnected through the global network that is the Internet. The lifeblood of the economy tends to depend on the internet availability (Herrera et al. 2014). However, the idea of always interconnection, data sharing, instant information and remaining efficient and productive tend to come with a substantial risk. Threats refer to anything that may negatively affect the business systems or data. There are two common types of threats that include physical threat and electronic threat. The physical threat is such as attacks, terror, fire, or floods while the electronic threats are such as hackers, viruses, or denial of service attacks. So as to deal with the evolving threats in business, organizations require a practical risk management strategy. The cyber criminals and hackers are looking for different ways of stealing corporate data which is very crucial to the business success (Herrera et al. 2014). In this report, we provide an analysis of the global risks and threats of today’s business. It is essential for organizations to focus on minimizing the impact of and also setting up a defense mechanism for the known and unknown threats.
Global risks and threats of today’s business
Risk tends to be everywhere. According to Cytryn et al. (2014), whenever we use technology, there is a risk. Today, businesses are using technology in conducting most of its operations and most importantly information technology. A major risk that an organization can face is the loss of confidentiality of data and its integrity. Such an attack tends to be more significant than others. As a result, there is need to consider the factor when developing the strategy for cyber security. An organization should work towards minimizing the impact of attacks that can lead to theft of confidential data (Herrera et al. 2014). Thus, so as to address the issue, organizations should develop and manage a portfolio of risks needs. The risk portfolio is the inventory of data risks, their likelihood, their impact, and strategies for mitigating them.
In business today, there is an increasing willingness of the malicious actors to exploit weaknesses in the business without hesitation. When looking at government reports, there tend to reference cyber-aspect elevating the old national security trope to the new urgency level. It happens in the change in the temporary and spatial dimension of the threat making cyber-attack less risky for the attacker than other types of attacks (Cytryn et al. 2014). In the cyberspace, the anonymous actors normally have symbols and their action unfold their effect anywhere and catching the attackers can be difficult because of the specificities of the technological environment.
The security problem in the infrastructure system also involves the vulnerabilities in systems. In the computer security, vulnerability is the confluence of three elements that combine the inward and outward looking perspective. They include the system flaw, an attacker’s knowledge and access to the flaw, and the attacker’s capability of exploiting the flaw. An intruder may delay, corrupt, destroy, exploit, and modify information with various implications. A key issue in cyber security is that the information infrastructure we are using every day for data transfer not built with the security in mind (Cavelty, 2014). If businesses can reduce their vulnerability, they can also reduce their level of risk. Vulnerability tends to be the only variable that business maintains some control over. Threats will always be there, and they will mostly be out of business control.
Thus, a strategy that the business can use is aiming at reduction, removal, and separation of the vulnerabilities. The idea is reducing the risk to the low level through layering defense mechanism. Businesses across the globe tend to face the risk of the cyber breach; however, many of the businesses do not understand the threat and also its severity. A Recent Survey indicates that cyber crime now rank the top four of economic crimes that face companies today. Cyber theft is a threat that is increasing for businesses today. The theft of financial information is increasing with stolen debit and credit card data on the black market being a lucrative business for the cyber criminals (Cavelty, 2014).
As businesses are using the new ways of paying for goods such as mobile payment and contactless payment, it is providing hackers with a new opportunity and mostly for retailers who do not store the payment data securely. As businesses are moving forward to better and easier ways of doing business, cybercriminals are also benefiting in the process that is a major risk for businesses (Herrera et al. 2014). With the new payment method, cyber criminals will be targeting individual cards and will not result in large-scale breaches. However, the payment technology used will not protect the retailers who do not securely store data, and they will need to be vigilant in protecting the stored data.
The scale and pace of information security threat are continuing to accelerate, and it is endangering the reputation and integrity of today’s organizations. The high-level corporate secrets and also critical infrastructure are under attack around the globe (Cytryn et al. 2014). Organizations should be aware of trends emerging and those not prepared for the security threat will be left in the wake of financial and reputational damage. It is significant for businesses to prepare to be targeted at any place and any time by multiple assailants. Those organizations that wish to keep the pace with the developments and remain financial viable will need to take action or face consequences. Having a risk portfolio can help organizations as it provide a detailed insight into the cyber risks that an organization faces and the consequences of the risks (Cytryn et al. 2014). When developing a cyber security strategy, it is essential to consider the internal systems with the same attention and thoroughness to detail about security and risk as does cloud solution. The cyber security strategy must take into account all the embracing characteristics of the cyberspace.
Conclusion
In today’s connected society, businesses need to prepare for the unknown so as to have the flexibility of withstanding high impact and unexpected security events. With the growth of the internet, there are tremendous opportunities for enterprises to develop new products and services that will offer satisfaction and convenience for consumers. Organizations should prepare to deal with the severe impacts of the cyber threats that seem impossible to predict. It is essential for organizations to extend risk management so as to include risk resilience and be able to manage, mitigate and respond to the negative effects of cyberspace activities. As the information risks and the cyber security threat increase, the organizations should move from reacting to the incidents and towards preventing and predicting them.
Reference
Cavelty, M (2014). Breaking the cybersecurity dilemma. Science Engineering Ethics 20,701-715.
Ross, S Beck, E & Cytryn, A (2014). Hackers, snoopers, and thieves. Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance
Tan, R Santos, J Yu, K Pagsuyoin, S & Herrera, L (2014). State of the art in the risk analysis of workforce criticality influencing the disaster preparedness for interdependent systems. Risk Analysis, 34(6).
Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in if you need a similar paper you can place your order from custom research paper writing service.
