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The Security Risks of Staffing Challenges

Wednesday, March 29th, 2023

The cybersecurity talent shortage is a known issue that the government, industry groups, and educators are working to address. But as CISOs are asked to do more with fewer resources and support, it can risk healthcare organizations’ cybersecurity. The “Implications of Stress on CISOs 2023 Report” by Cynet found that many security teams faced retention challenges due to work-related stress that could put their data at risk.

The Security Risks of Staffing Challenges

When security teams are understaffed, they can become overworked and burnt out. As a result, they have less time to focus on updating security policies, training staff, and monitoring the attack surface. The impacts of staffing challenges can significantly affect the ability of security teams to detect and respond to threats. The survey found that 65 percent of CISOs stated that work-related stress affected their capacity to safeguard their organization. In addition, 77 percent of CISOs believed their insufficient bandwidth and inadequate resources caused critical security initiatives to be neglected. These lapses are not going unnoticed. Seventy-nine percent of CISOs have received complaints from colleagues claiming security tasks are not being adequately handled.

the security risks of staffing challengesWith limited choices, organizations must be wise and strategic in the technology they employ. When asked about the technology initiatives that could positively impact their work-related stress levels, 57 percent of the respondents cited consolidating multiple security technologies on a single platform or interface as a possible solution. Additionally, 51 percent of the respondents believed automating time-consuming and repetitive manual tasks would help reduce their workloads.

Candidate Quality Staffing Challenges

When security teams cannot find qualified candidates to fill open positions, crucial tasks are left incomplete, and other team members must pick up the slack. In turn, this can lead to compounding issues with employee satisfaction and retention. Of the surveyed CISO teams, 74 percent reported losing team members due to work-related stress issues.

According to the report, nearly half of the teams had more than one CISO resign over the last 12 months. The impact of stress levels is seen in retention rates and recruitment efforts, with 83 percent of CISOs admitting they have had to compromise on the quality of new hires to fill vacancies left by departing employees.

Solving retention and recruitment issues is essential to improve your organization’s security posture. Rethinking the hiring process and investing in entry-level talent is just one approach to filling the cybersecurity talent pipeline.

Ways to Alleviate the Security Risks of Staffing Challenges

While solving staffing challenges will take time and investment from the public and private sectors, there are ways to streamline and automate tasks to reduce the burden on security teams.

According to Deloitte, email is a significant vector of security risk for many healthcare organizations. 91% of all cyber attacks begin with a phishing email. Healthcare organizations have more to worry about than cyberattacks. They are also vulnerable to insider threats and have serious data compliance obligations. Employees must understand data loss prevention and how to protect sensitive information that is shared externally.

By using LuxSci’s best-in-class secure email technology, it can drastically reduce the burden on security teams. Protect from external threats by employing advanced email filtering to stop cybercriminals from even reaching inboxes. In addition, LuxSci’s email encryption is enabled automatically to protect sensitive data in transit. It’s easy to administer and doesn’t require security and IT teams to spend hours developing keyword lists, analyzing gaps, and training employees. By reducing the risk of your email communications, security teams can focus their limited resources on critical security initiatives.

Contact LuxSci today to learn how our experienced team can help alleviate the burden on your security and IT teams.

Tags: ciso, cybersecurity, cybersecurity risk, email encryption, email filtering, email security, operational efficiency, phishing, risk assessment, secure connector, secure email, security risk, staffing
Posted in LuxSci Library: Security and Privacy
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The Cybersecurity Risks of Mergers and Acquisitions

Thursday, February 2nd, 2023

In tough economic times, many businesses go through mergers and acquisitions to improve their financial prospects. However, this process can put organizations’ sensitive data at risk. In this article, we discuss the cybersecurity risks of mergers and acquisitions. According to a report by Forescout, 62 percent of participants agreed that their company faces significant cybersecurity risks by acquiring new companies and expressed that cyber risk is their biggest concern post-acquisition.

cybersecurity risks of mergers and acquisitions

Before M&A: Assess Cybersecurity Risk

Even before mergers and acquisitions are announced, it can be a vulnerable time for a company’s data. Leakage of sensitive company data, like confidential financial information, can be catastrophic to negotiations. As a result, this makes companies considering a merger or acquisition highly susceptible to hacking.

Internal threats are also likely to increase. Employees not involved in negotiations may learn about merger talks and have some incentive to leak data to the press or to criminals to stop the process. It is essential to protect all communications relating to merger discussions.

The most significant risk of a merger is not doing cyber due diligence on the company being acquired. Risk analysis needs to be a part of negotiation talks. Most organizations being merged or acquired are smaller, with low levels of sophistication, and may lack mature cybersecurity programs. You need to understand the potential risks your company may be inheriting to prepare to address them properly. Security personnel need to be included in M&A talks to ask the right questions, audit systems, and prepare for integration.

Addressing Risk During Integration

Once a company merges with another, the risks to sensitive data increase. Highly sophisticated threat actors target M&A activities because, with operations in transition, high-value data is often vulnerable. 

The Technology Risks of Mergers and Acquisitions

In 2019, the IBM Institute for Business Value surveyed 720 executives responsible for the merger and acquisition functions at acquirer organizations. More than one in three said they experienced data breaches that can be attributed to M&A activity during integration.

IT changes may be extensive and cannot all take place at once. It’s essential to take time to fully understand inherited policies, equipment, and procedures before making rapid changes. Enterprise IT projects take time to plan and complete without disrupting day-to-day operations.

IT teams will deal with a new mix of assets, technologies, processes, and organizational culture during integration. Risks continue to evolve during the initial period of change as they learn more about inherited systems and processes. They may also be overwhelmed by integration tasks integral to day-to-day operations, so that security tasks may be a lower priority. It’s incredibly important to prioritize security and have a well-organized transition to ensure that sensitive data is not exposed.

The Personnel Risks of Mergers and Acquisitions

Changing personnel can also create gaps in your security program. Employees with institutional knowledge may leave the company, meaning crucial processes and procedures must be re-documented and updated. If teams are understaffed in essential areas, they may take shortcuts that leave sensitive data exposed.

Staff burnout and uncertainty from the transition can also lead employees to make mistakes. Phishing and business email compromise threats are prevalent in the early days of a merger or acquisition. People may report to new managers and fall prey to social engineering-style attacks because of their unfamiliarity with new reporting lines and company hierarchy.

It’s important to prioritize security training and update all employees on policies after a merger occurs. Clearing up ambiguity helps to reduce risk and builds trust in the organization.

How to Reduce Cybersecurity Risk During a Merger or Acquisition

Utilizing basic email security features like filtering and message encryption can go a long way to protect sensitive data and limit risks. Whenever confidential information is shared, it should occur through secure or encrypted channels. Leaked information can lead to negative consequences and volatility.

The best way to reduce risk is to plan for it. It’s critical to thoroughly understand the risks you will inherit by merging with or acquiring another company. This should include thoroughly reviewing risk assessments and IT systems and even bringing in a third-party to assess their cybersecurity. The time to find out about these liabilities is before the merger occurs, not on day one. 

Tags: business email compromise, cybercrime, cybersecurity risk, email encryption, email filtering, email security, hacking, phishing, risk reduction
Posted in Business Solutions, LuxSci Library: Security and Privacy
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