Why Staying Up to Date is Vital for Your Business’ Security

Modern businesses are always poised for growth. A proactive business is ready to respond to any opportunity that may arise, but so are malicious actors. It may seem difficult to balance growth with security, especially if your business relies heavily on technological systems and the networks that connect them. Users need training, networks need expanding, and devices need updating, all adding to the complications of keeping your important systems and data safe in an ever-changing environment.

Covered in this article

South Africa’s Security Conundrum
Plugging Security Holes
Connecting Hybrid Workers
Place Both Security and Workers First

South Africa’s Security Conundrum

It’s not just technology businesses that need to make sure their devices and networks are updated to protect themselves against growing cybercrime. According to the Organizations hit by ransomware attacks report from March 2022 to March 2023, South Africa is 4th on the list of countries most targeted by ransomware despite only being 53rd on the list of most technologically advanced countries. This is marked increase from previous years, revealing that South Africa is increasingly becoming a soft target for cybercrime.

Simply put, local businesses lack the capital and expertise to efficiently address attacks on their own, especially if they’re connecting multiple systems from different manufacturers. Keeping multiple device types and networks updated when even one small security hole can take down the entire system is certainly challenging.

Rapid technological adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the issue by pushing many businesses, both technical and non-technical, into adopting new networks they are ill-equipped to secure. In fact, manufacturers offering network devices often shift the security hot potato into the business’s laps, even though it’s their responsibility to ensure networks adapt to business needs, not the other way around.

Operating at the bleeding edge of innovation brings great benefits but requires strong network security. That’s why businesses should look for a technology partner that will help them implement and secure a corporate network ready for any challenge.

Plugging Security Holes

In the past, it seemed sufficient to secure each server, network, and device individually since cybercrime focused on attacking a single point. However, most cyber-attacks today use polymorphic or zero-day techniques to reach their targets, with many attack vectors at their disposal.

Cybersecurity professionals know that security is the weakest around the edges between networks and devices. Different systems connected together provide seams for cybercrime to pry into, with one vulnerable network affecting all the others. Manual segmentation approaches become impractical as networks grow in complexity and scale, leaving businesses plugging holes and hoping the holes won’t do enough damage to sink the ship.

The businesses are not to blame for the lack of security here; it’s their network partners who are slow to react to a breach, mitigate its effects, and provide updates for vital systems. Network partners shouldn’t be asking businesses to throw more resources at the problem.

Instead, a better option is to partner with a security solution provider that understands the need to be proactive, provides security updates quickly, and offers everything a business needs in one simple package. 

Connecting Hybrid Workers

Hybrid has become the way we work, but hybrid workplaces complicate corporate networks. Businesses that foster agility need their networks to be agile while also remaining secure.

A modern network built with state-of-the-art, secure networking solutions enables:

• flexibility by expanding corporate networks to remote workers,
• fast, reliable connectivity for high-bandwidth, low-latency applications, even in high-density environments,
• security and protection through zero trust models that unify both networking and security infrastructure.

By relying on a modern network that lets network administrators work smarter, not harder, the digital gap between remote workers and in-office workers is bridged, moving them onto the same secure network fabric. They share the same network resources, benefit from the same security policies and frameworks, and are easily visible and managed from a central point.

Place Both Security and Workers First

What is needed is a networking solution that prioritises both network security and worker connectivity. Such solutions will roll out essential updates seamlessly, responding to attacks before they can do any significant damage instead of passing the buck to the organisation using their technologies.

A key feature to look at is end-to-end security implemented through a zero-trust framework that prioritises security from the start. Such a unified identity management system works autonomously in the background to pre-empt and mitigate attacks. All of this is handled in real-time through a streamlined security solution embedded across hardware, applications, services, and processes.

There are several excellent options available to South African businesses that place both efficiency and security high on their priority list. A handful of our partners, each offering powerful and effective network solutions with many of the above features, are HPE Aruba, Check Point, Dell EMC, H3C, and Juniper Networks.

Let our partners help you manage your complex networks so you can focus on doing what you do best. Contact us to find out more about our networking solutions and cybersecurity solutions to get matched with a partner who will place your business first.