Top Focus21 Cybersecurity Tips for Digital Transformation

At Focus21, we are convinced that taking a casual approach to cybersecurity during the digital transformation of any business, regardless of the industry, is unacceptable. It is vital because even a single unexpected incident can negatively affect a company's reputation and deter clients.

Cybersecurity cannot be sidelined or left for later. We deal with it from the first day of cooperation with our clients, as otherwise, there might be vulnerabilities left in the software created for the company, which malefactors will surely take advantage of.

Cybersecurity became one of the key trends at Collision 2023, which took place in Toronto from June 27 to 29. At the conference, we spoke with Michael Bird, Sr. Business Development Manager, Training and Certification at AWS. He confirmed that it is particularly important today, during the boom in the popularity of generative AI.

In this article, we have gathered a few key tips that can help businesses increase their cybersecurity level during digital transformation. The following describes only some techniques that we use in our work when dealing with software for companies.

Assess the Level of Cybersecurity Risk

Firstly, it's crucial to conduct a comprehensive analysis of potential risks to the cybersecurity of the software that will be developed for a specific business. Companies greatly differ not only in the industries they operate in but also in the digital projects they want to implement.

In this case, it is also very important to consider the level of awareness of employees who will be using the developed software, as well as contractors who may also have access to it. This is particularly relevant for industries where digital transformation has just begun.

An important step in reducing cybersecurity risks may be training employees, improving their digital literacy. Moreover, it is important to also consider which third-party software they will use for potentially solving intermediate tasks that may concern the overall digital transformation of the business.

Study Current Legislation

It is very important to study the current legislation of the specific country in whose legal field the software will be used. Moreover, cybersecurity requirements may vary depending on the industry in which the business undergoing digital transformation operates.

Here are just a few examples:

• General Data Protection Regulation
• The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Ac
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
• Payment Card Industry Security Council’s Data Security Standard
• North American Electric Reliability Corporation Reliability Standards

Limit Access for Accounts

When multiple employees use the software, it usually implies the creation of an account system. This way, each user will have their virtual workspace with an individual set of settings and other nuances that only concern them.

In this case, it is also very important to organize account segregation according to the access to information needed by employees. Some accounts should get administrative rights, with which, among other things, you can manage permissions for all other users.

While working on the digital transformation of NextMed, which resulted in the TAS Platform project, we implemented a Gateway and Portal, for instance. They automatically segregate employees by access rights to certain information and applications from the company's ecosystem immediately after authentication.

Check User Password Complexity

A simple way to increase the company's cybersecurity level during digital transformation is a competent system that determines the complexity of passwords that employees use for their accounts. It should not allow simple options that can be easily hacked by brute force.

A good password should contain uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special symbols. Moreover, it's forbidden to use passwords from the publicly available list of most popular ones. Companies dealing with cybersecurity regularly publish lists of the worst passwords.

Worst passwords of 2023 according to Security:

• Running numbers: “123456”, “123456789”m “111111”
• Clustered keys: “qwerty,” “asdfgh,” “1q2w3e”
• Common phrases: “iloveyou”, “letmein”, “trustno1”
• “Password” and variations of it: “password”, “strongpassword”, “password1”, “incorrect”
• Common names: “Princess”, “Hannah”, “Bob”
• Curse words

Moreover, you can also use two-factor authentication. In this case, the system needs additional user confirmation in some external way: via SMS, by call, through a third-party application. This is especially important for accounts with administrator rights.

Ensure the Reliability of Your Cloud Provider

It's important to use the services of reliable cloud providers and other service providers. A reliable partner developer, who is dealing with a company's digital transformation, will choose the most suitable option independently. Usually, these are well-known service providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).

“AWS is that backbone, that infrastructure that can help them innovate and accelerate their business and do that undifferentiated heavy lifting. Rather than them having to worry about servers, they can worry about doing their product and bringing that customer value.” (Michael Bird, AWS)

Test Your Own and Third-Party APIs

The software required for a company's digital transformation usually implies interaction with its own or third-party APIs. This is necessary for user authentication with different access rights, database integration, using information from external partners.

To prevent hackers from accessing all this data, it's important to thoroughly test the security of each API, regularly check the reliability of accounts that have access to information, not publish the source code in public, and register all system access requests.

Choose a Reliable Partner Developer

To not worry about everything mentioned above, it's important to choose a reliable developer with a lot of experience as a partner for the digital transformation of your business. They will work out all aspects of cybersecurity of this process and reduce risks to zero, using best practices.

To learn more about the cybersecurity of the software necessary for your business, contact the COO of Focus21 at your convenience. We will help to choose the best solutions that will be suitable for the digital transformation of your specific company.