A good part of the activities of companies and citizens today take place in fully digital environments. Cybersecurity is now no longer an optional issue, but rather a priority for most companies, which are increasingly aware of the need to assess their level of exposure and degree of vulnerability in order to take the most appropriate solutions.
Today, cybercrime already exceeds 1% of world GDP. Cyberattacks on businesses are increasing around the world; also in Spain, which is one of the most affected countries in all of Europe. For this reason, in February, the Government presented a strategic plan to combat cybercrime, through a public awareness and awareness campaign.
Currently, one in five crimes is committed through procedures related to cybercrime. Among those that have increased the most in the last seven years, we find computer fraud (which has reached 442.9%) and computer forgery (up to 374.1%), followed by illegal access and interception (93 .6%) and threats and coercion (50.6%).
Indeed, cyberthreats have increased exponentially in recent times, but fortunately so have prevention tools. Infoself-Parlem Empreses, a company that offers communication, management software and cloud solutions, has worked hard to provide appropriate cybersecurity tools for organizations and companies of all kinds. As David Ayats, general director of Infoself-Parlem Empreses, explains, “cybercrime is increasingly aggressive and sophisticated. Artificial intelligence tools are already being used for attacks. Likewise, cybersecurity evolves very quickly to meet the challenges we face”.
Francesc Xavier Vendrell, senior cybersecurity analyst at Infoself-Parlem Empreses, for his part, points out that protection must be effective, without affecting business activity. Sometimes, the demands of cybersecurity “may not get along very well with the criteria of productivity. We help companies to be more secure, but without affecting their operation and productivity. And all this at a reasonable cost.
Vendrell highlights four types of especially common threats: those that affect the integrity of the data and the modification or alteration of files; those related to confidentiality (such as theft of passwords, personal data, corporate information or intellectual property); those that disturb the continuity of a business (such as the denial of service of a website or application, or the corruption of computer equipment); and to the public image of companies that have received some type of cyberattack, a trend that, as we have been able to see in recent times, is becoming more frequent.
As Jordi Bartés, IT Area sales manager, rightly points out, "the repercussion of certain cyberattacks on important sectors and public administrations, as well as on companies of any sector and size, has generated a kind of general state of alarm in the professional field, where there is increasing awareness of the need to have adequate protection and contingency plans”. However, Bartés adds, even after events such as those mentioned, "cybersecurity is not always valued as an investment", but in some cases it is still seen as an expense, which means that "it is often invested after an incident ”.
In his company, they have solutions to prevent cyber-attacks to a large extent, thanks to the joint work with WatchGuard, a world-renowned company, of which Infoself-Parlem Empreses is the only platinum partner in Spain and Portugal. Its proposal is based on offering specific security equipment and solutions; carry out configuration reviews and parameterization of computing environments; and offer cybersecurity training to all employees of the organizations for which they work, from the CEO and the board of directors to each of the employees, passing through the IT department.
Prevention (which includes the so-called "digital cyber hygiene", which serves to keep the IT infrastructure updated and secure), protection with the best tools in the sector (such as EDR and XDR solutions for equipment protection, perimeter security or the access control), and the creation of contingency plans (with on-premise solutions and through the cloud environment, to keep backups always safe and protected) are undoubtedly key aspects.
In addition, new SOC (Security Operations Center) tools will soon be made available to small and medium-sized companies, a type of service until now available to larger companies.
To promote awareness of digital threat prevention aspects, Infoself-Parlem Empreses has prepared a complete cybersecurity guide for companies and organizations that includes a catalog of good practices, and in which they address essential issues in this area such as detection of virtual traps or phishing; protection against malicious software; security on mobile devices; the limitation in access to information or the use of external memories.
Likewise, Infoself-Parlem Empreses offers help to all organizations that may have doubts about the cybersecurity of their digital environment, offering an initial review to find out the situation in which they find themselves and propose solutions to possible vulnerabilities.
Infoself-Parlem Empreses offers a comprehensive service to ensure that any business has proactive protection and a solid reaction plan in case of a possible computer disaster. There is no doubt: investing in cybersecurity is today one of the best ways to protect a company, and, in particular, its most important assets: information and employees.
Infoself-Parlem Empreses is part of the Parlem group, the first large telecommunications group of Catalan origin founded in 2014 by the company's president, Ernest Pérez-Mas.
