Challenges In Cybersecurity For Businesses: Insights And Solutions

The Learning Experience on Cybersecurity

Question:

Discuss about the Business Continuity and Emergency Planning.

The learning experience I have gone through is an eye-opener in the cybersecurity sector. I have learned several ways which criminals use to carry out injustices to unsuspecting businesses, companies, and individuals. Cybercriminals often use viruses and malware to infiltrate the security and computing systems of business data by stealing, corrupting to suit their pre-planned ill-intentions (Labuschagne and Veerasamy 2013). As such, many businesses are raising the concern of their safety on the internet. Due to increased technological advancement, businesses are embracing use of the internet to streamline operations which in most cases put them at risk of cyber-attack. For example, many businesses are falling victims of extortion management, phishing attacks, and hackling which usually interfere with smooth operations of daily activities (Labuschagne and Veerasamy 2013). In particular, hacking of data systems of a company can paralyze its operations completely.

The value of these experiences is very important as it has enabled me to know the techniques used by criminals to propagate cyberattacks. Therefore, through this learning experience, I have acquired basic skills of reducing and preventing cyberattack. For instance, in a situation where an attack takes place, the company can make changes to all default passwords to secure access to the system (Scully 2014). Other valuable experiences include; adjusting and removing administrative rights, and training of staff on the importance of guarding confidential information. Additionally, companies can encourage password rotation to break down security familiarity and consistent identification and application of missing security patches (Jing et al. 2014).

This learning experience will serve me well in my course by broadening my understanding of information technology sector. Most importantly, techniques used by cybercriminals to steal confidential information and paralyze operations of various organizations management. Moreover, this learning experience has helped me understand and acquire research skills which are often an asset to any learning institution.

My program has got a boost as far as deep understanding is concerned. In particular, I have got exposed to more literature, case studies, real-life examples how cyberattack has affected businesses and companies. Those insights have solidified my knowledge base on this program. I am quite more knowledgeable now as compared to when I started the program.

From what I learned on challenges associated with a cyber-attack, I intend to specialize in cybersecurity. This has been inspired by attacks on big multinational companies like Google where their Chinese headquarters detected a security breach which revealed that hackers gained access to the main server and stole their intellectual property in 2009 (Tan and Tan 2012). As such, I would like to prevent such attacks in the future.

The Effects of Cyber-Attack on Businesses

Generally, this learning experience has enabled me to understand that cyberattack can be propagated not only through company computers but also through our smartphones (Labuschagne and Veerasamy 2013). I, therefore, plan to advise friends and families to careful with their phones to prevent theft of confidential information. It is also important to avoid using personal phones in accessing company servers as this makes is prone to attack.

The learning process began by coming up with the research topic. After wide consultation with my instructor, I settled on, “challenges in cybersecurity for businesses.” I was concerned with the fact that both small and multinational companies are experiencing problems associated with cyber-attacks which lead to loss of revenue and confidential information.

After reading a lot of literature on various companies that faced cyber-attacks and combining with the course materials, I specified my objectives for the study. The primary objective of the study being, to describe the effects of cybersecurity for both small and large business enterprises. Further, since cybersecurity is quite broad, I did set boundaries of my study. In particular, I settled on challenges in cybersecurity for companies’ operations. Consequently, I consulted various pieces of literature which solidified my objectives that cybersecurity is a problem to small and big business.

In the process of my research, I read that challenges in cybersecurity are propagated through data breaches, cloud computing, hacking, social networks, and mobile devices (Kim, Wang, and Ullrich 2012). Nevertheless, I read on mitigation strategies to these challenges, for example, using passwords to access organizational systems management (Scully 2014). Furthermore, I designed the research methodologies what would guide sample size and population, research design, data collection and analysis and even set my research schedule to guide my study. 

Business research techniques have been helpful in the process of this study. In particular, I learned how to frame my research topic o be simple, clear, and understandable. Moreover, when it came to designing the objectives, I learned of the primary objective, which is the core of the research topic and secondary objectives which helped me not to deviate from the main course of my research (Cooper, Schindler, and Sun 2006).

More often, many researchers tend to deviate from the main topic of study and include things that tend to be general. Fortunately, through the help of business research guidelines, I designed clear and simple research questions that limited my parameters of study which helped me stay focused on the topics. Furthermore, owing to the various research designs, I chose the right approach of this study, which makes it valid in the academic arena. I also learned of many data collection and analysis techniques but settled on the most appropriate courtesy on insights learned on business research. For instance, I chose qualitative approach since it requires a small sample from the cybersecurity of businesses to represent the whole or the entire population is small (Cooper, Schindler, and Sun 2006). As such, skills from business research led to the successful completion of this study.

Prevention and Mitigation Techniques for Cyber-Attack

From this research process on challenges of cybersecurity for businesses, I learned how identity theft can damage a reputation of a company or an individual. In many cases, individuals have committed suicide, and companies close down because of a cyber-attack. For example, Monica Lewinsky has explained how cyberattack cost her privacy to the extent she felt like committing suicide (Williams and Delli Carpini 2000). Notably, small and big businesses have fallen prey of cyber-attacks. Broadly, in American politics, there was alleged hacking of the presidential elections which shows how cyber-attacks can be very detrimental to our lives. Therefore, these injustices formed my hypothesis that cyber-attacks affect both small and big business operations. Nonetheless, I focused on businesses since they influence our economy and the well-being of the society. Large companies like Google have been affected by cyber-attacks which often result in loss of confidential information and consequently the destruction of businesses (Tan and Tan 2012). Therefore, this learning process is important to the academic and business communities globally.

Lessons learned from this research will form the basis of pursuing further career opportunities. Most businesses and organizations are embracing technology which put their operations and data at the mercy of cyber attackers. Intrinsically, I am tempted to pursue a career in cybersecurity to offer preventive and protective technologies to the business community, more so the small businesses. Even before enrolling for cybersecurity program, I can now sensitize my friends, families, and small businesses on the importance of taking measures to protect their data such as using passwords. This will to some extent help people especially, with the growing number of people using smartphones to conduct business.

Considering the fact that I aspire to have my own company, I am now convinced on the right company to set up. Cybersecurity Solutions Company. I must say that through this research study, I have identified more business opportunities which can help solve businesses challenges in the community. Most small businesses believe that cybersecurity strategies are very expensive and thus opt to operate without taking such precautions (Prince and King 2012). As such, I will take an initiative of offering effective low-cost solutions to small businesses.

References

Cooper, D.R., Schindler, P.S. and Sun, J., 2006. Business research methods (Vol. 9). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Jing, Q., Vasilakos, A.V., Wan, J., Lu, J. and Qiu, D., 2014. Security of the internet of things: Perspectives and challenges. Wireless Networks, 20(8), pp.2481-2501.

Kim, S.H., Wang, Q.H. and Ullrich, J.B., 2012. A comparative study of cyberattacks. Communications of the ACM, 55(3), pp.66-73.

Labuschagne, W.A. and Veerasamy, N., 2013, July. Dangers of Social Networking Sites?the Propagation of Malware. In Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Information Warfare and Security: ECIW 2013 (p. 173). Academic Conferences Limited.

Prince, D. and King, N., 2012. Small Business Cyber Security Survey 2012.

Scully, T., 2014. The cyber security threat stops in the boardroom. Journal of business continuity & emergency planning, 7(2), pp.138-148.

Tan, J. and Tan, A.E., 2012. Business under threat, technology under attack, ethics under fire: The experience of Google in China. Journal of business ethics, 110(4), pp.469-479.

Williams, B.A. and Delli Carpini, M.X., 2000. Unchained reaction: The collapse of media gatekeeping and the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. Journalism, 1(1), pp.61-85.