As India embraces digital transformation, cyber wellness becomes a priority

The pace at which India is adopting digital tools as a full-fledged channel to communicate and engage is a testament to the way the country is emerging as a powerhouse for technological innovation. In addition, the Indian government’s focus on new-age technologies in this year’s budget has accelerated the pace of digital transformation.

As digital adoption increases, cyberattacks like phishing, DDoS, ransomware, and data breaches are also soaring. This means everyone who uses the internet needs to be aware of how to take care of their assets online. The importance of driving cyber wellness, especially with large volumes of young professionals and emerging talent increasingly using the Internet for work, cannot be overstated.

Driving cyber wellness in organisations

Although the focus on securing an organisation’s digital infrastructure has increased, there are always chances of other aspects of security being missed. This can lead to incidents like sharing of critical information such as passwords, or accidentally clicking on links attached to spam emails.

In order to prevent such incidents, it is important for business leaders to ensure that the workforce is aware of how to be safe online. The first step to building a secure ecosystem is to drive cyber wellness throughout the organisation.

The concept of cyber wellness broadly refers to ensuring the well-being of internet users. In a nutshell, cyber wellness focuses on equipping internet users with the knowledge and skills to maintain a safe and positive online presence.

As we replace on-premise systems with SaaS-based models, CIOs and CISOs must understand the importance of promoting cyber wellness to prevent data theft and other cyber threats. Organisations should take the necessary steps to safeguard their workforce and their customer base by identifying cyber threats and taking measures to mitigate them.

One of the ways of building a strong cyber wellness culture is to understand some of the most common techniques that attackers use to steal data and compromise critical information. And one of the common techniques employed by an attacker actually uses the most common mode of communication in the workspace—email.

Driving cyber wellness with email security

Despite being one of the most used channels of communication, email is a major attack vector over the internet. Some of the most prevalent ways that threat actors use to steal critical information are phishing, email spoofing, account takeover, sending malware through emails, and email interception.

Since email is one of the most common ways to steal data, the biggest question is, 'What steps can organisations take to prevent such incidents?'

●     Encrypting data can help protect data over email as it acts like a sealed envelope that can only be accessed by those to who the email is directed to.

●     Integration with Data Loss Prevention solutions which scan for and block sensitive or protected content before it gets attached and sent over emails.

●     Link isolation is another way that isolates any potentially risky links, downloads, or other zero-day attacks from impacting that user’s computer and the wider corporate network.

Today, the role of cyber wellness not only entails protecting the stakeholders, but is key to driving a positive presence in cyberspace. Furthermore, organizations, institutions, and the government should look at creating awareness programs to equip people with the know-how of the Internet and ensure that cyber wellness is at its core.

Jonathon Dixon is the Vice President & MD - APAC, Japan & China, Cloudflare.