Investing in cloud Internet security: the key to the future

Cyber attacks have disruptive results on the victims’ everyday life and, because of chain effects, on all the people who use, both directly and indirectly, their services. In this post we discuss how investing in cyber security is essential to grant the continuous functioning of companies and institutions and how cloud internet security represents a preferred option for companies and organisations.

Why should you invest in cyber security?

Hackers show no intention of stopping. The attacks that have taken place over the last months proved how powerful they are and their ability to stop our normalcy, suddenly and without warning. We recently analysed the effect of the Kaseya attack, which during the month of July  obliged the Swedish supermarket chain Coop to temporarily close down almost all of its stores. Indeed, the attack rendered inoperative the system to manage the cash registers in the shops.

In this case, starting from the company supplying the app/services, the attack spread to the MSPs managed such services, and then to their customers with cascade disruptive effects also on the final consumers

Investing in cybersecurity is essential to grant the continuous functioning of companies, organisations, institutions and schools.

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First half of 2021: some data

At the global level, during the first half of 2021 cyber attacks have increased by 29%. The primary targets are still companies and, more specifically, hackers prefer two types of companies:

»   Companies that, because of the pandemic, keep using the possibility of remote work: employees are still all too often unaware of the dangers linked to cyber threats and become a vulnerable target for hackers, who exploit their weaknesses to access their laptops and then, through the VPN services, enter the company network and can access all sort of information and steal it.
»   MSP, Internet service providers on top of the supply chain for specific services: in this case, hackers want to exploit the chain effect to cause damages to the biggest possible number of final users, asking then for a ransom to the supplier companies in exchange for a “universal decryptor” that will allow things to go back to normal.

Institutions and public administrations as well have become a more frequent target of cyber criminals, who ask for the payment of ransoms that are higher and higher in order to allow the population who need to use public services to go back to normalcy. For more information about ransomware check out our dedicated article.

Investing in cyber security

In this situation, investing in cyber security represents a winning choice. As the Italian newspaper Corriere reported, in 2021 spending on cyber security services and on systems to manage risk at the global level is expected to rise by 12.4% compared to 2020, reaching 150.4 billion dollars.

According to Corriere, the growth rate is linked to the increase in the demand for smart working technologies. Also, there is a growing request to protect the cloud systems that allow who works remotely to share, update and store data in real time.

Cybersecurity is the top priority on the 2021 agenda of at least 61% of the interviewed CIOs (Chief Information Officers).

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Cloud Internet Security

And the studies show that, on top of the need to protect company clouds, also the choice over the type of internet safety to apply is moving towards the cloud. Cloud internet security is indeed the most rapidly growing service in the market for cyber security. Somebody who works in it is considered a Casb – that means Cloud Asset Security Broker.

But what are the reasons that make cloud internet security so appealing? We can highlight three main ones:

»   The first reason is upstream: today, also for work-related reasons, we use more and more often tools other than the laptop.
? Cloud internet security can be installed at the router level or as end-application, allowing users to surf safely on all devices connected to the net or directly on the one where the app was downloaded.

»   Cloud internet security makes the interaction between Saas  – Software as a service – and non-managed services safer. We talk about Saas when a software producer develops and manages a software and then makes it available to the users through the internet. On the other hand, we non-managed service when, after purchasing a service or application, the user (purchaser) manages it autonomously.
»   By using a cloud internet security service the user can benefit from a continuously updated protection.
? If companies that produce and offer the cloud-based service update it regularly, then the final users will enjoy all the positive aspects of having an updated protection system.

With cloud internet security, users don’t have to download lengthy updates and reboot their systems, all changes are automatically adopted by the system!

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But how exactly does cloud internet security work? Check out our dedicated article and discover all the details.

European Union and cyber security: a common framework

On 16 December 2020 the European Commission presented the new EU Cybersecurity Strategy (“EUCS”). Since its introduction, the system to promote, develop and implement cybersecurity in Europe has included:

»   The Cybersecurity Competence Centre (“ECCC”)
»   The Network of National Coordination Centres
»   The Joint Cyber Unit

The aim of EUCS is to strengthen collective resilience in Europe against cyber threats, making trustworthy digital tools available to all citizens and companies. The other target of the strategy is to promote the debate and creation of international norms and standards to regulate cyberspace. Up to now, this topic has received little attention also because of the difficulties linked to possible collaborations with actors outside the Union.

Cybersecurity Competence Centre and Network

The ECCC is headquartered in Bucharest, Romania. Its aim is to develop and implement, in cooperation with the member states and with the IT and Cyber Security communities, a common agenda to achieve technological development especially in areas of public interest and in the business world, with particular attention to SMEs.

One of the main aims of ECCC is that of coordinating cyber security investments at the European level and collecting resources from the member states. Such investments, as its mission reiterates, are essential in order to reach the ambitious targets of cyber security established by the European digital programme and by the programme Horizon Europe.

Joint Cyber Unit

While the ECCC has got more sort of a coordination and investment role, the Joint Cyber Unit (“JCU”) is the operative branch of the Strategy. Indeed, the JCU provides for a physical and virtual platform where all of the cyber security actors can cooperate. The list of actors includes all of the cyber security communities of the member states, made of civilians, police, diplomats and stakeholders in the private sector.

These actors, who too often work individually, will have the chance to share their knowledge and resources in order to build a European platform for solidarity and assistance to be used when it becomes necessary to face large scale cyber attacks.

European investments in cloud Internet security

With the Cybersecurity Strategy the European Union is set to reach a level of 4.5 billion euros of investments, combining EU direct investments (which are expected to be of at least 2 billion euros as per the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027) and investments by the member states and by the cybersecurity industry.

Part of the funds for digital projects should also be added to the ones just mentioned. Indeed, the Union expects to invest as much as 20% of the funds allocated to the Recovery and Resilience Facility (“RRF”) in projects that will allow all the member states to fully enter into the digital era. Considering that the RRF counts funds for 627,5 billion, the ones dedicated to digital projects are of 134,5 billion, an enormous amount that is also an indicator of how much more there needs to be done in many EU countries.

According to the EU, the cost of cybercrime for the global economy in 2020 amounted to 5.5 trillion euros, more than double the figure for 2015.

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