One-third of businesses can’t detect cyber attacks

Cyber security is a growing threat for Canadian businesses. Yet according an EY survey, more than one-third (36%) of organizations still don’t believe they can detect sophisticated cyber-attacks.

That number is lower than last year (56%), but still a concern as the level of sophistication in attacks continues to increase. Because of this, Canadian organizations in both public and private sectors are collaborating to respond to this threat more effectively and in a timely fashion.

“With the recent increase in adoption of threat intelligence services, we are seeing businesses start to take a very different and more proactive approach to information security,” says Abhay Raman, EY’s Canadian Cyber Security Leader. “The future will see more persistent, multi-vector targeted attacks on operational technology environments versus mass attacks.”

As organizations strive to understand cybersecurity, these are six trends to watch in 2016:

• Cyber threats from the interconnected world
• Growth in digital identities Organizations must rethink how they recognize and treat identities by establishing robust data ownership and date protection policies.
• Hyper-regulation leading to a more complicated landscape Organizations risk becoming so focused on complying with different requirements they won’t be able to develop an overall strategic and balanced approach to cybersecurity.
• Criminal marketplace will become increasingly professional Organizations should conduct a tailored threat assessment aligned to protect their most valuable data, and establish mitigation measures around vulnerabilities for access to it.
• Traditional models for defense are no longer adequate Leading organizations need to look for ways to proactively engage their highest risk adversaries and protect critical data assets.
• Advanced active defense to detect and respond to advanced cyber attacks By applying active defense techniques and leveraging security analytics, organizations will be able to shift the paradigm from reactive to proactive.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.