The Ultimate Cyber Conversation with the CyberHub Engage Podcast

What’s needed is “an effective provisioning and de-provisioning system that defines rules for what users can do with data and provides quick auditing of who granted access to the data. There needs to be training around the approval process for granting and revoking access to data; otherwise, organizations risk compliance fatigue and start rubber-stamping all the access requests.”

Another newer issue is that “the transition from a fully remote to a partially on-site work environment creates substantive cybersecurity concerns based on the ongoing mental health crisis,’’ said IEEE senior member Kayne McGladrey. As some businesses attempt to mandate a return to the office, they should be aware of the mental health challenges employees are facing, he said. “Research shows a significant decline in workers’ mental well-being, resulting in stress and anxiety. These mental states can negatively affect decision-making and lead to cybersecurity lapses.”

Companies should pay special attention to consistent classification and labeling of data, as it’s one of the biggest hurdles to effective data governance. Setting default labels for new data (for example, dubbing them confidential) can ensure that policies and technical controls are applied consistently across the organization. This also frees up data creators from having to manually label all newly created information. “In that way, a data steward only needs to review data labels when that data is crossing a security barrier such as preparing a file to send to a client or third-party vendor,” notes Kayne McGladrey (@kaynemcgladrey), director of security and information technology at Pensar Development.

People may aptly sum up 2020 in a single word: crisis. An inadequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people globally. The underlying data are more tragic, as the pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color that have lived with the daily existing threats of shrinking economic mobility and racism. At the same time, both public and private organizations have struggled to mount an effective defense against cybercrime, which represents not only one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history but also threatens public trust in democracy and civil society. This article provides context and actionable steps to begin to dismantle the underpinnings of these long-standing crises; however, this article is not the solution. Only sustained action will lead to meaningful change.