Page 6 - BusinessWest June 23, 2021

6 JUNE 23, 2021
FEATURE
Beyond the Firewall Small Businesses Seek Shelter from the Storm of Cyberattacks
The recent spate of high-profile cyberattacks, many involving paid ransoms featuring six or seven zeroes, has brought an ongoing, and escalating, problem even more to the forefront. Businesses are being advised that the problem needs to be managed — before the worst happens. That means having a detailed plan involving many layers to keep things safe.
BAy George O’Brien
s he talks about cybersecurity, Charley Christianson equates that art and science (mostly science) to an onion.
By that, he means it has layers — many of them — with each one being
important to the desired end in this matter: keeping one’s data, business, financial information, and per- haps life and livelihood safe.
“The goal isn’t to have one be-all, end-all product or solution that’s going to protect you — it’s a variety of things,” he explained. “It’s about trying to put as many layers between the threat on the outside and the asset, which is at the core.
“Most people understand the firewall discussion,” he went on. “But what they’re starting to understand is that it’s not just the stuff that protects you — it’s your staff, it’s your people, it’s the training, it’s the educa- tion, it’s the policies, and having all that in place.”
Christenson, like everyone else in this business,
has been making this onion analogy — or whatever phraseology they use to get their points across — quite often these days. That’s because cybersecurity — most- ly in the form of high-profile, as in very high-profile, attacks — has been in the news lately. Again. Or still, to be more accurate.
These attacks have come one after another: the
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