Taking proactive measures is critical to any aspect of a strong cybersecurity strategy. And today, the need for a robust incident response plan has never been greater. As more and more companies embrace remote work, we see an influx of personal devices on the corporate network. As a result, the potential attack surface expands while endpoint visibility is significantly reduced.

It's natural for tension between the cybersecurity team and internal stakeholders to exist. As the administrator, you play a crucial role in ensuring the network's security, protecting against unauthorized access, and troubleshooting any access issues. But trying to keep people both secure and productive can be challenging. Ultimately, you want to protect critical data without making your colleagues' jobs more difficult.

According to a report published by the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), losses resulting from attacks against business emails are 64 times more damaging than ransomware when measured by dollar amount losses. Phishing and email data breaches can be particularly damaging in the health sector. Regulatory authorities and oversight bodies are incredibly stringent when enforcing compliance measures designed to protect sensitive medical and patient data.

2021 was a banner year for phishing attacks. According to our latest report, Fighting Phishing: The IT Leader's View, more than eight in ten organizations, or 84%, were hit by them last year. That's up from the 73% revealed in our previous report. Given stats like these, it's no wonder cyber threats now top the list of concerns reported to the Allianz Risk Barometer by business risk experts.

Looking to improve your organization’s cybersecurity intelligence? We’ve compiled eight ways to boost your internal capabilities and stay abreast of emerging threats.

In his book Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World, cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier wrote, “People often represent the weakest link in the security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems.” That remains as true today as when the book was first published 22 years ago. It’s easy to understand why users often represent the weakest cybersecurity link within an organization.

As we navigate through 2023, ransomware attacks continue to grow in scale and sophistication. This year has already witnessed an alarming number of high-profile incidents (at the time of writing), meaning ransomware attacks remain one of the most significant cybersecurity threats organizations face.