The Annual Cybersecurity Report (ACR) recently released by Cisco shows that email spams have reached the highest levels since 2010. Data from the global report reveals that spam accounts for nearly 65 percent of emails with eight to 10 percent cited as malicious.
The 2017 report shows that there is a critical need for enhanced cyber security as global spam volume is seen to be rising rapidly, often spread by large, thriving botnets.
Evidenced in the report is the fact that technology has helped attacks become more damaging and defenses become more sophisticated.
In 2007, the ACR reported web and business applications were targets, often via social engineering, or user-introduced infractions. However, 10 years later, hackers are more inclined to attack cloud-based applications, and spam has escalated, reaching its peak since 2010.
Sadly, only 56 percent of security alerts are investigated and less than half of legitimate alerts re-mediated. Defenders battle complexity and manpower challenges, leaving gaps of time and space for attackers to utilise to their advantage.
The report surveyed nearly 3,000 Chief Security Officers (CSOs) and security operations leaders from 13 countries in the Security Capabilities Benchmark Study, part of the Cisco ACR and these CSOs cited budget constraints, poor compatibility of systems, and a lack of trained talent as the biggest barriers to advancing their security postures.
Speaking on the impact of this report on Nigeria, Olakunle Oluruntimehin, General Manager, Cisco Nigeria said; “In Nigeria, we recognise that the wide penetration of mobile and growth in internet usage also means that we are more vulnerable to cybercrimes. That is why we leverage our partners, the Cisco Networking Academy program to grow our Security market share.
“In 2017, cyber is business, and business is cyber –that requires a different conversation, and very different outcomes. Relentless improvement is required and that should be measured via efficacy, cost, and well managed risk. The 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report demonstrates, and I hope justifies, answers to our struggles on budget, personnel, innovation and architecture,” Oluruntimehin added.
According to the report, over one-third of organisations that experienced a breach in 2016 reported substantial customer, opportunity and revenue loss of more than 20 percent. 90 percent of these organisations are improving threat defense technologies and processes after attacks by separating IT and security functions (38 percent), increasing security awareness training for employees (38 percent), and implementing risk mitigation techniques (37 percent).
Cisco advises organisations to take steps to prevent, detect, and mitigate threats and minimise risk. These steps include; making security a business priority: Executive leadership must own and evangelise security and fund it as a priority. Measure operational discipline: Review security practices, patch, and control access points to network systems, applications, functions, and data. Test security effectiveness: Establish clear metrics. Use them to validate and improve security practices. Adopt an integrated defense approach: Make integration and automation high on the list of assessment criteria to increase visibility, streamline interoperability, and reduce the time to detect and stop attacks. Security teams then can focus on investigating and resolving true threats.
Oluruntimehin said that; “The Cisco Networking Academy is expanding its causes to include security everywhere by providing knowledge and capacity building partnering with government and private educational institutions, this actually aligns with the skills development and jobs creation goal of the Government ensuring that we are also increasing skills in security IT.
“We currently have over 130 academies in Nigeria and have more academies joining this number on a quarterly basis, he said.
Jumoke Akiyode
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