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Your Industry Challenges
Industries Served
Education
HigherEd and K-12 face challenges from both regulatory compliance requirements and targeted attacks. From the compliance side, the FTC's Safeguards Rule, the DoD's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) may apply based on the school's work and research. All of the former require adequate cybersecurity controls to protect sensitive information. From the targeted attacks side, colleges and universities have been known to be targeted by nation states such as Iran and China for the purpose of stealing intellectual property and military secrets, respectively. Add the typical threats such as those from phishing and malware and you have a dire need to ensure HigherEd and K-12 systems have robust security controls in place.
Legal
Law firms find themselves in a unique situation because while their industry doesn't have to directly adhere to any specific regulatory body, they do have to adhere to compliance requirements based on data they handle. For example, law firms that handle patient health information are obligated to implement adequate cybersecurity measures to protect it per HIPAA. Additionally, the American Bar Association’s Model Rule of Professional Conduct states lawyers are obligated to protect their clients’ confidential information from unauthorized access and disclosure by taking reasonable security measures. This includes implementing appropriate controls to prevent data breaches and cyber-attacks. Cyber criminals are constantly evolving and so are their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPS). This means to successfully protect your firm from them, your defenses have to evolve at a faster pace.
Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry faces a particular set of challenges due to their hybrid environment of information technology (IT), industrial control systems (ICS), and operational technology (OT). Keeping all of these disparate systems updated and patched is critical as not doing so leaves them vulnerable to attack. Manufacturing companies also deal with a complex network of suppliers and partners who may introduce threats through supply-chain attacks. Add all this to the need to protect intellectual property and trade secrets and securing a manufacturing environment becomes a daunting task. Despite the challenges presented by manufacturing environments, there are numerous ways to implement effective security controls to prevent business disruption from cyber attacks. For example, proper network segmentation and constant system monitoring for threats can significantly reduce the likelihood of operational disruption.
Financial
Financial services organizations can find themselves under pressure to comply with regulatory compliance requirements or suffer consequences. Examples are 23 NYCRR Part 500, Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), and the Federal Trade Commission's Safeguards Rule. In addition to the need to comply with the many requirements above, there are other aspects of cybersecurity that may not be required under compliance, that if not addressed, can result in exploitable vulnerabilities going unresolved - which can lead to a data breach. This is why compliance does not equate to being secure. Regulatory compliance is a basic standard meant to serve as a foundation to build upon.
Retail
Retail businesses face several cybersecurity challenges as they handle sensitive customer information and perform financial transactions. Some of the key cybersecurity threats in the retail sector include theft of payment card data, supply chain vulnerabilities and other third-party risks, regulatory compliance, and ransomware attacks. According to a report by Zipdo, retail is the third most attacked industry following on the heels of financial institutions and healthcare organizations address these challenges, retail businesses should implement a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that includes regular risk assessments, employee training, robust security protocols, and compliance with industry regulations.
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Healthcare
Healthcare institutions are custodians of protected health information (PHI) and other forms of personally identifiable information (PII). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is designed to help protect this sensitive information with Administrative, Physical, and Technical Safeguards. Nevertheless, successful cyber attacks and data breaches are still happening in healthcare at a rapid pace. This is because full compliance with HIPAA is not enough to achieve the level of cybersecurity required to thwart today's attackers. The plethora of different technologies in healthcare environments ranging from OT to IT makes keeping systems secure quite challenging. Lack of skilled cybersecurity staff, budget restraints, and a need to ward off constant attacks makes achieving HIPAA compliance and effective cybersecurity a herculean effort.
Technology
Tech firms provide a digital technical service, product, platform, hardware, or heavily relies on them. Examples are managed IT, software development, and technology hardware firms. Depending on their focus, tech firms can fall under various regulatory compliance requirements such as HIPAA, FTC's Safeguards Rule, PCI-DSS, and others. Along with a potential compliance obligations, tech firms often have trade secrets, customer data, and other sensitive information they need to keep confidential. Like other businesses, they need to protect themselves from phishing attacks, business email compromise, fraudulent wire transfers, and malware such as ransomware.
AEC
Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms have rapidly adopted many forms of technology such as Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) to enhance their services. This rapid adoption of technology and information sharing in order to collaborate from geographically disparate locations has introduced cyber risk. There is also the fact AEC projects involve the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and smart building technologies that, if not properly secured, create vulnerabilities. Along with the challenges stated above, AEC firms store sensitive information in the form of intellectual property, schematics, blueprints, reports, and models from their clients. This information needs to be kept confidential and protected. Without adequate security controls in place, a data breach and business disruption is a real possibility.