The term multinational corporation is often used to describe the likes of Mcdonald’s and Coca-Cola. But, as time goes on, even the smallest of companies we can define as having a presence in multiple countries because the world economies are becoming more integrated, and the world has become more digitalised. This does pose some new issues, however. Cyber security is becoming far more important to even the smallest of start-ups because of this shift in the digital world. For example, an independent clothes store would have employed a cash register, salesperson, and local accountant 10 years ago. Today, a small independent clothing business may have a digital marketer, remote accountant, and intermittently hire freelance web designers.
The changing role of Cybersecurity
When having employees and freelancers around the world with our entire clientele data (and payment details) saved on a server, our responsibilities are drastically different to that high street store. But as you can imagine, owners of independent clothes shops – or any kind of non-tech business – likely doesn’t have a background in programming, IT, and/or cybersecurity. In short, they canot take on this responsibility themselves and improvise.
This is why companies like Tarlogic are doing so well right now, as they offer remote cybersecurity services for companies in need of some expertise. Pentesting, threat intelligence, fraud investigation, and digital surveillance, among many more services, are available. This is often much more efficient than taking on an in-house IT team, in which a strong company culture, effective chain of command, and a year-round salary is required.
Remote employees
Having employees from around the world, working from home, or using freelancers also means remote access to systems is required. This become a lot more common during the pandemic, but remains a strong trend today. With more endpoints, there are more points of attack. Likewise, although some companies will provide dedicated work computers, phishing attacks are more common.
Many people continue to use their personal computers for their jobs, as well as their own home routers or public Wifi, and so on. It’s clear that since the pandemic, there has been a huge increase in targets and target locations due to the company data being in the homes and cafe’s of employees. Cybersecurity budget and resources are rarely reflected in this changing remote landscape, which can be difficult to keep up with quickly changing regulations and threats.
Final Word
The increasingly digital world makes for more efficient transactions, marketplaces, and economies. However, it comes at the price of new vulnerabilities and threats. Companies need to implement basic security controls, potentially migrate their systems to the cloud, use a zero-trust framework, and strengthen their corporate data protection program. Clearly, this is a lot to take on as a non-technical owner of a small business, which is why outsourcing cybersecurity and IT implementation is growing. However, basic security training is something that cannot be neglected just because the workers are remote. In fact, it should be more important than ever, with employees trained to detect phishing attacks and other good working practices like password management.
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