Cyber Security
Cyber Security: protecting you with the Essential Eight Maturity Model and other strategies
Cyber Security can be confusing and overwhelming for a small business owner. Often they are not fully aware that they need tighter security until they are asked if they have certain steps in place by a vendor or they are told they need to comply to access funding or apply for tenders
Often, businesses owners say to us,
“We don’t know what we don’t know”.
“Where do I start?”
“How do I address my cyber security requirements within my budget?”
“Do I need to do everything at once, or can we do just certain components?”
Cypro helps you put the pieces together to address your cyber security requirements.
How Cyber Security Protects Your Business
In today’s digital landscape, the importance of cyber security cannot be overstated. With the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) reporting a cyberattack every eight minutes, the threat is real and ever-present.
Cyber attacks can compromise everything from personal identity to critical business data and the ability to operate your business. This is where our cyber security approaches come into play, integrating a comprehensive cybersecurity plan for your systems, people, processes, and technology.
Why Is Cyber Security So Important?
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), received more than 67,500 reports during the 2020-21 financial year. This equals a cyberattack every eight minutes. In one year, the losses totalled $33 billion; and that is only the losses that were reported!
In today’s digital world, everyone requires cyber defences.
On a personal level, a cyber security attack can result in anything from identity theft to extortion attempts to lose essential data, such as family photos.
On a business level, a cybersecurity attack can ruin your business reputation and open your customers up for identity theft or fraudulent spending and loans. Legal proceedings are also a genuine possibility.
How Is Cyber Security Set Up?
A solid cybersecurity setup involves setting up systems and processes to protect your business from digital attacks.
At Cypro, we believe in a “Zero Trust” methodology, ensuring the maximum level of security and minimum level of risk. These cyber-attacks often aim to access, alter or destroy sensitive information, extort money from users or disrupt normal business processes. So it’s important that you have the right systems in place to protect against these risks.
How we help at Cypro
Cypro will help your business put steps into place that prevent cyber attacks. This can involve things like training your team, using software like antivirus programs, installing email protocols and looking into the best platforms to store and protect your data. We’ll employ cybersecurity tactics and put risk management systems into place, using approaches like the eight essential mitigation strategies known as the ‘Essential Eight Maturity Model’.
Systematic Cyber Security Approaches
Protecting your online information is via a multi-layered approach that weaves your people, processes and technology together.
Implementing effective cyber security measures is particularly challenging today because there are more devices than people, and attackers are increasingly innovative.
And this is where the Essential Eight maturity model and its eight essential mitigation strategies come into play.
The Essential Eight Maturity Model
The Essential Eight Maturity Model is a thorough, proven cybersecurity risk management process to tackle enterprise risk management when it comes to cyber security.
The Essential Eight framework provides a structured approach to enhance your organisation’s defences against a wide range of cyber threats.
The Essential Eight, as the name could suggest, focuses on eight key areas of cyber security.
By progressively implementing the Essential Eight strategies, we can significantly reduce the likelihood of a successful cyber attack and minimise the potential fallout from a cyber security incident.
The first step of this process when you work with Cypro is a Maturity Assessment.
Cybersecurity Maturity Assessments: Your First Step with Cypro
Every journey with Cypro begins with a maturity assessment. This essential step helps us understand where your business currently stands in terms of cyber security.
A maturity assessment is a comprehensive review of your cybersecurity practices and strategies. It measures how well they sit with industry standards and best practices, identifies areas of strength and weaknesses and recommends improvements. Think of it like a health check-up of your organisation’s cyber defences.
It’s not just about identifying weaknesses; while this is important, to fill any holes in your digital security, it’s also about recognising your strengths and building upon them.
The Types of Cybersecurity Maturity Assessments
Digital Maturity Assessment
A digital maturity assessment in cybersecurity measures how well an organisation has integrated advanced cybersecurity practices and technologies into its overall digital transformation strategies.
Data Maturity Assessment
In cybersecurity, a data maturity assessment evaluates an organisation’s capability to effectively protect and manage its data assets against cyber threats and breaches.
We'll help you find the holes in your cyber security and address them
Whether it’s a data maturity assessment, a digital maturity assessment, or both, our team is equipped to guide you through each phase, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of your cyber security posture.
Essential Eight Maturity Model Specialists
The ‘Essential Eight Maturity Model’ is a cornerstone of our cyber security strategy at Cypro.
This framework is not just a checklist; it’s a comprehensive approach to securing your digital assets and information. By thoroughly working through this model, we can assess and enhance your cyber security maturity across eight critical areas (the essential eight mitigation strategies).
The goal is to build resilience against a range of cyber threats, tailored to your business’s unique context.
Enterprise Risk Management and Cyber Security
Enterprise risk management is a top-down strategy for businesses and organisations to prepare for, identify, and prevent losses, dangers and risks. Enterprise Risk Management for Cybersecurity is the same concept.
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in the context of cybersecurity refers to a comprehensive approach that identifies, assesses, manages, and mitigates risks associated with its digital and information assets.
This approach integrates cybersecurity into the broader framework of an organisation’s risk management strategies, recognising that cyber threats can impact not just IT systems, but also the overall business operations, reputation, legal standing, and compliance obligations.
At Cypro, we’ll help you create a thorough Cybersecurity Enterprise Risk Management strategy, and integrate it into your overall risk management strategies and processes.
Cybersecurity Enterprise Risk Management for Businesses of All Sizes, Australia-wide
At Cypro, we cater to businesses of all sizes, and offer tailored solutions that address your specific needs.
Whether you’re a team of five or a company of 300, operating in a regulated industry or just aiming to strengthen your cyber defences, we are here to help.
While we’re based in Brisbane, we service clients Australia-wide, managing risk and safeguarding against cyber attacks and incidents.
Types Of Cybersecurity Threats and How We Combat Them
Common Cybersecurity Threats and How We Use the Essential Eight Maturity Model and Other Strategies to Combat Them
Understanding the types of cybersecurity threats is key to effective defence. Phishing, malware, social engineering, and ransomware are just a few of the tactics used by cybercriminals.
At Cypro, we don’t just help you recognise these threats; we equip you with the tools and knowledge to combat them. This includes training your team, deploying effective software solutions, and establishing robust protocols for data protection.
Phishing
Phishing is a form of fraud in which an attacker masquerades as a reputable entity or person in email or other forms of communication. Attackers will commonly use phishing emails to distribute malicious links or attachments that can perform a variety of functions. Some will extract login credentials or account information from victims. Deceptive phishing is popular with cybercriminals, as it is far easier to trick someone into clicking a malicious link in a seemingly legitimate phishing email than it is to break through a computer’s defences.
Phishing attacks typically rely on social engineering techniques applied to email or other electronic communication methods. Some methods include direct messages sent over social networks and SMS text messages.
Criminals can use public sources of information to gather background information about the victim’s personal and work history, interests, and activities. Typically through social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These sources are normally used to uncover information such as names, job titles, and email addresses of potential victims. This information can then be used to craft a believable email. Typically, a victim receives a message that appears to have been sent by a known contact or organisation. The attack is then carried out either through a malicious file attachment or through links connecting to malicious websites. In either case, the objective is to install malware on the user’s device or direct the victim to a fake website. Fake websites are set up to trick victims into divulging personal and financial information, such as passwords, account IDs, or credit card details.
Malware
Malware, or malicious software, is any program or file that is intentionally harmful to a computer, network, or server. These include computer viruses, worms, Trojans, Ransomware, and spyware. These malicious programs steal, encrypt and delete sensitive data, alter or hijack computing functions and monitor end users’ computer activity.
Malware can infect networks and devices and is designed to harm those devices, networks and/or their users in some way. Depending on the type of malware and its goal, this harm may present itself differently to the user or endpoint. In some cases, the effect malware has is relatively mild and benign, and in others, it can be disastrous.
No matter the method, all types of malware are designed to exploit devices at the expense of the user and to the benefit of the hacker — the person who has designed and/or deployed the malware.
Social engineering
Social engineering is a tactic attackers use to trick you into revealing sensitive information. For example, they can force a monetary payment or gain access to your confidential data. Social engineering can combine with any of the above threats to increase the likelihood of clicking on links, downloading malware, or trusting a malicious source. Cybersecurity involves putting steps into place that prevent cyber attacks. This involves training your team, using software like antivirus programs, installing email protocols and looking into the best platforms to store and protect your data.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a malicious virus that will encrypt your data and prevent you from using it until you pay a ransom. It is designed to extort money by blocking access to files or the computer system until a ransom is paid. Paying the ransom is no guarantee that you can restore your files or recover your system. It is not as prevalent but it is still out there. It is mainly health or financial businesses that get targeted as the need to access their data quickly is paramount.
FAQs: Cyber Security and Essential Eight Maturity Model
“Cybersecurity” refers to the practice of protecting computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks, unauthorised access, or damage. It’s a broad field that covers everything from securing personal data on your smartphone to protecting massive data centres and secure government networks.
Application Whitelisting, Patch Applications, Configure Microsoft Office Macro Settings, User Application Hardening, Restrict Administrative Privileges, Patch Operating Systems, Multi-Factor Authentication, Daily Backup of Important Data.
The Essential Eight key mitigation strategies when it comes to cyber security are something that we can list (and have in the FAQ above) but may not make much sense to you unless you’re technologically savvy. But when you work with us, we’re happy to either take care of it and explain what you need to know in order to stay protected or talk you through from start to finish in general everyday terms.
It’s like a health check-up for your organisation’s cyber defences, ensuring that they are up-to-date, comprehensive, and capable of protecting against current and emerging threats.
Our cyber security experts are here to help
We work with businesses of all sizes to help them identify, and then manage their cyber security risks.