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    Why it’s critical for Indian MSMEs to prioritize endpoint protection as they go digital

    Synopsis

    After Covid -19 pandemic, cybersecurity has become an area of major concern for MSMEs. Here's how MSMEs can improve their endpoint protection.

    shutterstockET Spotlight
    For decades, technology has been gradually disrupting the global business landscape. But the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this further, forcing businesses, large and small, to go digital and adopt other technological solutions to ensure business continuity. Like most businesses, Indian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) also embraced digitization to modernize supply chains, ensure customer service, and improve business operations. However, along with the many growth opportunities brought about by digitization, it also gave rise to significant cybersecurity risks.

    According to Dell Technologies’ Global Data Protection Index (GDPI) 2021 findings, which provides insights to the data-protection confidence participants have in their hybrid, multi-cloud and edge infrastructure, 62% of companies were concerned about coping with malware and ransomware, 74% saw increased risk of cyber threats with remote employees, and 67% struggled to protect cloud-native apps.

    Like most businesses, cybersecurity remains an area of major concern for MSMEs, since a majority of these businesses, in particular, lack the required experience and technical know-how to protect their business against cyber-attacks. In addition, limited access to capital also hurts MSMEs’ ability to adequately invest in the right cyber security solutions.

    Failure to invest in endpoint protection can have serious implications for businesses. Companies that face a debilitating cyberattack can suffer from:
    • Reputational loss
    • Loss of loyal customers
    • Leakage of sensitive data and information
    • Disruptions to business operations
    • Negative revenue impact
    • Loss of contracts or business partnerships, among others

    As such, it is critical for MSMEs to strengthen their cybersecurity awareness, preparedness, and defense capabilities.

    How can MSMEs improve endpoint protection
    There are certain steps that MSMEs can take to boost their endpoint protection capabilities.
    • Awareness and knowledge of cyber risks: Improve awareness of the various types of endpoint risks that your organization currently faces by conducting regular security checks and boosting the IT team’s capabilities. Organizations should also invest in learning and awareness creation programs for employees to have a better understanding about the various ways in which a data breach can happen, such as ransomware, malware, and phishing attacks.
    • Knowing the asset that an organization wishes to protect: Every business is unique, and their business models differ from one another. For some, data can be crucial, while for others intellectual property could be more important. Businesses should know exactly what they need to protect and accordingly, prioritize their investment into beefing up cybersecurity capabilities.
    • Zero trust policy: Zero trust policy aims to secure infrastructure and data. It requires that all users, within and outside the organization’s network, be authenticated, authorized, and validated for security configuration on a continuous basis before being granted access to applications and data.
    • Authentication and strong passwords: Ensure multi-factor authentication for all applications and devices and emphasize the use of strong passwords to avoid security breaches.

    Investing in the right endpoint protection solutions

    In addition to boosting endpoint protection capabilities internally, MSMEs should also consider investing in the endpoint protection solutions provided by data protection experts and tech majors that are adept at putting in place robust security architecture to detect threats and protect against cyber-attacks.

    Dell's PowerProtect Cyber Recovery solution, for example, protects and isolates critical data from ransomware and other sophisticated threats. Machine learning identifies suspicious activity and allows a business to recover known good data and resume normal business operations.

    Dell Technologies, through its various security solutions, is helping MSMEs thwart cyber threats with intrinsically secure infrastructure and devices, comprehensive threat detection and response, data protection, and cyber recovery. Its end-to-end security solutions include various other products, such as Dell SafeGuard and Response, Dell Endpoint Security Services, and Dell SafeData and Ransomware Defender for Dell PowerScale.

    Indeed, with more and more MSMEs going digital, it is becoming even more imperative for companies to prioritize endpoint protection and collaborate with the right IT partner to implement a robust security plan to secure their data and businesses.
    (This article is generated and published by ET Spotlight team. You can get in touch with them on etspotlight@timesinternet.in)
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