Challenges in Cyber Security for Business Literature Review

This literature review delves into the multifaceted challenges of cybersecurity in contemporary business environments. It explores the various threats and vulnerabilities faced by organizations, including network security issues, data breaches, and advanced persistent threats. The review examines case studies of organizations like Lancope and hotels in Reno, Nevada, highlighting the impact of cybersecurity issues on business operations, customer loyalty, and financial stability. Furthermore, it addresses the challenges faced by organizations like Ontario Local Distribution Company (LDCO), emphasizing the lack of skilled personnel and the need for effective IT asset management. The review also discusses broader issues such as user awareness, data ownership, and the limitations of risk management tools, alongside the importance of change management in adapting to the evolving cybersecurity landscape. The conclusion underscores the critical role of cybersecurity in modern business and the need for proactive measures to mitigate risks and protect valuable information assets. This assignment is available on Desklib, a platform offering AI-based study tools.

Challenges in Cyber Security for Business
Literature Review
8/15/2017

Challenges in Cyber Security in Business
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Project Objectives........................................................................................................................................3
Project Scope...............................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................9
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Challenges in Cyber Security in Business
Introduction
Cybersecurity refers to the processes and techniques that are applied in order to protect the
computer systems and networks from the various security attacks and risks. There are a number
of security related issues that have been observed in the current times that lead to adverse
impacts on the cyber systems and networks. There are many challenges that are associated with
cyber security in the form of the implementation of the security protocols and many others. The
project includes the identification of the challenges that are associated with Cybersecurity.
Project Objectives
The primary objectives of the project are as listed below.
 Analysis of the Cybersecurity challenges that are associated with the businesses
 Listing of the Cybersecurity issues in association with the three business organizations
 Learning the possible solutions that can be applied to overcome the challenges
Project Scope
The following activities will be accomplished in the project:
 Selection of the topic to carry out the research work
 Literature review on the topic as Challenges in cyber security for business
 Presentation of the research proposal on the selected topic
 Preparation of a reflective journal on the research work that is carried out
Literature Review
There are a number of challenges that are associated with the vendors and users of the computer
and web-based solutions and services. Cybersecurity is associated with many different
challenges in the areas of network security, implementation issues etc.
Lancope is an organization that is now a part of Cisco and works in the field of providing
Cybersecurity solutions to its customers.
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Challenges in Cyber Security in Business
There are newer threats and forms of security attacks that are being developed by the malevolent
entities. The security team and solution providers work on the known threat and issues with the
use of firewalls, intrusion based detection systems, anti-malware tools etc. Lancope also faced
the same challenge as there were network security solutions that were present for the threats that
were already identified. With the expansion of the systems and services, attacks such as
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), insider threats, Distributed Denial of Service attacks etc.
have been developed. There are still mechanisms that are required to be developed to put a check
on the threats that occur in real-time.
Lancope is an organization that did not limit itself to the traditional practices to deal with the
cyber issues and security problems. One of its applications makes use of Deep Packet Inspection
(DPI) along with behavior analytics to deal with the Cybersecurity issues. The primary challenge
that occurred in association with Lancope was to deal with the increased amount of data traffic
and ensure the performance of its flow sensors accordingly. There were speed and complexity
issues that were identified (Rohde-Schwarz, 2016).
Cybersecurity is an advanced branch that includes the various methods and processes that shall
be used and applied in order to deal with the cyber risks and attacks. There are still businesses
and sectors that are not aware of the requirement and necessity of including Cybersecurity
mechanisms and protocols in their architecture.
One of such industries is the hospitality industry that has been observed to have many loopholes
in terms of the Cybersecurity methodologies that are applied. The case study includes the
analysis of Cybersecurity mechanisms in five different hotels in Reno, Nevada located in the
United States. The level of Cybersecurity that was analyzed and identified in the process was
found to be extremely low with a number of loopholes (Shabani, 2016).
The primary issues that were observed in association with the hotels included a number of
identity thefts and data breaches. The breaching of the data led to the loss of the information
properties such as availability and confidentiality of the information. There are many of the silent
criminals and attackers that are present in the hospitality industry. There is a large use of web
based systems and applications across the entire hospitality industry. It is because of this reason
that there are many access points that are present which are used by the malicious entities to
enter the system that is used and silently observe the flow of activities and information. Such
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Challenges in Cyber Security in Business
silent invasions lead to the problems of password captures and unauthorized recording of the
activity flow which leads to the damaging impacts. Another primary issue that was observed in
the hotel chains was the execution of the security audits and reviews to find out the
vulnerabilities that were present. It is because of the reason that there were no updates and
enhancements that were being done at a regular interval. All of these issues and security attacks
lead to the loss of competitive gains and advantages over the competitors in the market.
The set of issues that were identified with the hotels and the hospitality industry included a major
gap in understanding the requirement of Cybersecurity mechanisms and protocols. The level of
awareness of the staff members and the management units engaged with the hotels was not
enough and as per the required standards. There are still obsolete methods and practices that are
being used due to the lack of the knowledge and awareness in the area. The implementation of
the Cybersecurity solutions also gets troublesome in such businesses as the staff members are
required to be provided with the trainings on the operational and technical parameters.
Loyalty programmes are run by the hotels to expand the customer base that is associated with the
hotels. In case of the occurrence of security attacks and threats, the customer loyalty is also
negatively impacted. Once a customer experiences a data breach, the level of customer trust and
engagement drops down (Pilling, 2013).
There is another case study that has been reviewed and analyzed to understand the Cybersecurity
challenges that are present in various business sectors across the globe. Ontario Local
Distribution Company (LDCO) is an organization that works in the area of providing electrical
services and solutions to its customers. There is a wide use of smart grids, smart meters along
with numerous Internet of Things (IoT) applications in the organization (Herzog, 2011).
There is a lack of support staff and tools that were observed in LDCO that led to a number of
different problems to manage the IT assets and to develop and implement the Cybersecurity
solutions. There are manual processes that are being used for inventory control and management
which may result in the configuration and security challenges. IT asset management is extremely
difficult to be carried out in such cases. There is a lack of technical skills and abilities that were
identified in LDCO that resulted in many of the technical issues in association with the cyber
systems and solutions. The organization did not have any process of maintenance of the logs
which led to difficulties in order to track a particular activity. Vulnerability management and the
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Challenges in Cyber Security in Business
level of threat intelligence that was present in the organization were also very limited (Stratejm,
2016).
As a result, there were a number of Cybersecurity challenges and issues that were identified in
LDCO in terms of operation, technical and managerial issues. User awareness is again one of the
primary challenges that has been observed in the organizations that belong to non-IT or non-
technical sectors.
Business organizations in the current times deal with a lot of information and data that belongs to
the various categories of information, such as, sensitive information, critical information, private
data, public data etc. There are three properties that are associated with each of these information
categories as confidentiality of the information, integrity of the information, and availability of
the information. It is extremely necessary to make sure that all of these three information
properties are maintained and secured at all times. However, with the execution of a number of
security risks and attacks, these properties of information get impacted in a negative manner
(Vidalis, Jones and Blyth, 2004).
There are many challenges that are associated with Cybersecurity that have been observed in the
execution of the research processes on various business sectors. In case of the non-IT industries,
the awareness of Cybersecurity and the technical skills to implement and maintain the solutions
and services is extremely limited. There are many start-ups and small-scale industries that are
present in these sectors. These units cannot afford to spend much on the establishment of a
designated department for security control and management. There are basic tools that are being
used by such organizations that provide the malevolent entities with the ability to execute the
risks and attacks and gain entry to the systems. There are also many of the operational issues that
have also been identified in association with these industries because of the lack of operational
knowledge and skills (Lee, 2012).
There are many of the newer forms of threats and attacks that are being developed. These new
threats and attacks are being executed by the attackers before the resolution and prevention
mechanism is created. Such threats may cause huge damage as it takes time to put a check on the
same. There is a continuous work of research and development that is being carried out in the
field of Cybersecurity; however, the number of issues and problems are also increasing at the
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Challenges in Cyber Security in Business
same pace. The reason behind the same is the excessive use of the automated tools and
applications by the clients all across the globe (Gavas, 2012).
There are huge clusters of information that is present in the business organizations and units of
the current times. Due to the presence of these data sets and huge information clusters, it is
difficult to assign the data ownership and authority to the required personnel of department.
There are ownership and responsibility issues and challenges that have been observed. As a
result, the authority of the Cybersecurity practices that shall be applied along with the review to
understand the standardization of the same is lacking (Crespigny, 2012). There are performance
and maintenance issues that often come up in association with these systems and solutions that
go unnoticed because of inadequate ownership resulting in numerous security challenges and
problems.
Risk management strategies and solutions that are also applied to make sure that the risks that are
associated with the cyberspace are overcome. There are many of the automated tools and
applications that have been developed in order to manage the risks and issues that are involved.
However, these tools have a problem of their own. Some of these tools are extremely expensive
which may not be in accordance with the budget of most of the organizations. The basic version
of these tools does not come with the required set of features (Thannum, 2013). Also, there is a
continuous monitoring and maintenance that is required in association with these tools that
further enhances the cost. As a result, there are many businesses that make use of the alternative
tools and practices that are not as effective as required. This results in the occurrence of many
cyber risks and attacks (Markelj, 2016).
Change management is another Cybersecurity challenge that has been observed in association
with the business organizations. There is an immense shift in the business practices and activities
that are carried out (Choi, 2013). It has led to the emergence of numerous changes and
transformations in terms of the nature of activities, flow of the tasks, operational and technical
activities etc. The management of all of these changes is not easy to be executed and an
enhanced duration of the management and handling of these changes result in the negative
impact on the productivity and efficiency levels.
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Challenges in Cyber Security in Business
Conclusion
The modern day businesses cannot be imagined without the use of computer systems, networks
and other elements of Information Technology. There is an enhanced shift in the business
practices and solutions that are being used in various sectors and industries. As a result, there are
many Cybersecurity challenges that have come up. These challenges can be classified in the
areas of technical challenges, operational challenges, management challenges, user awareness
issues and budget constraints. It is necessary to develop the departments that may handle the
risks and attacks that are involved in association with the cyberspace in the cost-effective manner
to prevent and detect the same.
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Challenges in Cyber Security in Business
References
Choi, S. (2013). A model of analyzing cyber threats trend and tracing potential attackers based
on darknet traffic. Security and Communication Networks, p.n/a-n/a.
Crespigny, M. (2012). Building cyber-resilience to tackle threats. Network Security, 2012(4),
pp.5-8.
Gavas, E. (2012). Winning Cybersecurity One Challenge at a Time. IEEE Security & Privacy,
10(4), pp.75-79.
Herzog, S. (2011). Revisiting the Estonian Cyber Attacks: Digital Threats and Multinational
Responses. Journal of Strategic Security, 4(2), pp.49-60.
Lee, M. (2012). Cyber crimes: preparing to fight insider threats. Computer Fraud & Security,
2012(6), pp.14-15.
Markelj, B. (2016). Comprehension of cyber threats and their consequences in Slovenia.
Computer Law & Security Review, 32(3), pp.513-525.
Pilling, R. (2013). Global threats, cyber-security nightmares and how to protect against them.
Computer Fraud & Security, 2013(9), pp.14-18.
Rohde-Schwarz (2016). Lancope accelerates security performance and time-to-market with Dell,
Rohde&Schwarz Cybersecurity & Napatech. [online] Available at: https://cybersecurity.rohde-
schwarz.com/sites/default/files/download/casestudy_lancope_misc_en_3607-2390-32_v0201.pdf
[Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].
Shabani, N. (2016). A Study of Cyber Security in Hospitality Industry - Threats and
Countermeasures: Case Study in Reno, Nevada. [online] Available at:
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1705/1705.02749.pdf [Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].
Stratejm (2016). Case Study: Cyber Security-as-a-Service. [online] Available at:
http://stratejm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SECaaS-Case-Study-Cyber-Security-as-a-
Service.pdf [Accessed 15 Aug. 2017].
Thaanum, J. (2013). Threats to Cyber Security: The Dangers of Malicious Mobile Code, Users,
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and the iPhone. Journal of Applied Security Research, 8(4), pp.490-509.
Vidalis, S., Jones, A. and Blyth, A. (2004). Assessing cyber-threats in the information
environment. Network Security, 2004(11), pp.10-16.
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