In a webinar titled “Best Practices to Secure Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in an Evolving Cyberthreat Landscape”, Ms. Abby Guha, the Vice President of Yubico’s Global Product Marketing shared her views and practical strategies on how SMBs can maneuver against current cyber threats trends and be the fore runners to secure their business.
It is inevitable that the future of organizations relies on remote and hybrid working conditions – with pandemic accelerated this trend. However, this practice brings additional cyber risk to the organizations. Cyber-crimes have increased 300% since the start of the pandemic and malicious actors thrive from the current situation. Phishing attack has becoming more sophisticated with hackers benefits from every single off-guarded loophole in the systems. It is imperative for organizations to secure their working environment, whether on site or remotely at their employee’s home.
Many SMBs do not realize how they become the prime target from cyber criminals. As part of supply chain and business ecosystem of larger organizations, SMBs are often utilized as entry points for larger attack. Unlike large organizations which usually has a dedicated support team, SMBs are often insufficiently equipped against cyber-attacks. They often possess limited resources with only one person or one small team that also has multiple roles in the organizations. As the weaker link in the supply chain, SMBs have sensitive data includes credit card information, medical records, social security numbers, bank account credentials, etc. which are lucrative for cyber criminals.
Unfortunately, SMBs often underestimate their risks, thinking that the cyber criminals are only going after larger organizations. In actual day-to-day practices, SMBs are leaving themselves vulnerable by exploiting their own password insecurely. Insecure passwords are often the roots of system loophole that allows cyber criminals to breach the system. 80% of breaches are caused by stolen credentials. It is imperative for SMBs to act and think beyond password to ensure that the right users with the right credentials have access into the system. The damage from data breaches cannot be taken lightly. As much as 60 percent of SMBs close down within 6 months of breaches.
With digital transformation occurring inside organizations, SMBs need to secure the ways they fuel their business models by ensuring secure usage of social networks and other communication demand while staying connected with their customers. They also have to be more aware of interruption in supply chain with the increasing usage of cloud-based applications and shared information systems.
Many SMBs find it hard to find an effective solution that is easy to implement with minimum disruption to their legacy system. With so many options that they are offered with, SMBs may feel overwhelmed to choose between which solution that is most practical – powerful enough to protect and yet easy enough to implement.
MFA (Multi Factor Authentication) is the way of user authentication using several methods of authentications combined. MFA is the most secure way to authenticate the right users with zero penetration rate (compared to 80% penetration rate using the regular username and password authentication and 10-50% penetration rate using 2FA such as SMS OTP). Adding physical key such as Yubikey can significantly reduce cyber-attacks.
There are many solutions which offer MFAs but not all MFAs are created equally. Using security key such as Yubikey which works based on modern authentication protocols, offers high level of security and user intuitiveness. Yubikey is proven to be highly phishing resistant, and suitable for SMBs. With a simple touch and tap function, Yubikey offers very strong authentication that is easy for anyone to use.
Using Yubikey, you can secure your authentication system even if you have only limited IT resources to dedicate for cyber security. With seamless user intuitive features and multi-devices compatibility, Yubikey can be used even by a novice. Now everyone in your organization can easily protect their accounts with hassle-free solution from Yubikey. With more than 700 applications to support, Yubikey is an easy choice and a sure winner amongst other MFAs alike.
DT Asia, the trusted distributor of Yubikey products for ASEAN and Greater China, offers you with the best authentication solution. With our experiences for more than 15 years, DT Asia provides in-depth understanding of customer’s requirement and delivers suitable solutions accordingly. Using our services, your company will be ready to face the digital transformation inside your organizations. Whether you want to implement hybrid office or remote office, you are now well-equipped to protect yourself from harmful cyber threats. Learn more on how we can help you to secure your company and contact us for further information.
