Why should companies adopt a proactive approach to security?

Today, cyberattacks are becoming increasingly more complex and are thus costing companies millions. In order to address this, a whitepaper from Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity insists that a proactive approach to security implementation is key.

The challenge

With billions of users and unlimited computing capacity, the paper notes that the Internet is now the most powerful network ever. Nevertheless, this evidently provides an ample opportunity for cyber-criminals to exploit Internet users. In fact, a Bitkom study found that cyberattacks have already affected two-thirds of industrial companies. Moreover, the report estimates that the damage in Germany is EUR 55 billion per year. While neglected system or software updates evidently cause issues, cybercriminals are using browsers as the entry points for malicious activities. This includes viruses, Trojan horses, ransomware, advanced persistent threats and zero-day exploits. According to the report, most malware now enters networks through a browser and/or a website visit. However, the "main culprits" are active content such as Flash, Java, JavaScript, ActiveX or HTML 5, which "execute external third-party code on a PC under its own operating system and in the user’s data infrastructure."

Enabling a proactive approach to security

In order to address this challenge, Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity recommend the “security by design” approach. This means changing from reactive to proactive solutions in order to prevent incidents instead of merely mitigating them. In security terms, this entails separating the operating system and the browser from one another. By encapsulating the browser with a virtual machine, this protects the PC, data structure of the user, and corporate network from malware. As a result, all aspects of a website run in an isolated environment - without impairing the operating system or the files. Employees are therefore able to safely surf the web at all times, while the network remains protected. As the report states, it is especially important that users do not experience any restriction when using the Internet. A proactive approach to security also relieves enterprises from significant operational and financial risks.

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