How to Combat Cyberattacks? October’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Since 2004, October has served as a dedicated awareness month highlighting the growing cybersecurity threats facing businesses. The following article explains why this topic deserves special attention right now.

Perhaps October was chosen as Cybersecurity Awareness Month precisely because of its association with Halloween – after all, the dangers posed to companies by cybercriminals and their ever-evolving attack tactics are truly frightening. In 2020, records were shattered across the board – but already this October, the number of cyberattacks in 2021 has surpassed last year’s figures by 17 percent! Not only is the sheer volume of attacks targeting corporate networks rising steadily; the sophistication of these attacks is also increasing dramatically. It’s therefore critical not only to raise awareness of cyberthreats but also to qualitatively strengthen protective measures and defensive strategies.

How Companies Can Defend Themselves Against Cyberattacks

Awareness of the threat is already widespread – especially given the high volume of attacks over recent years. Yet that awareness has often failed to translate into decisive action. That appears to be changing: despite pandemic-related cutbacks, investments in cybersecurity are rising again this year. Industry association Bitkom reports growth of 9.7 percent in this sector. In absolute terms, German companies will spend €6.2 billion on hardware, software, and IT security services this year – rising to €8.9 billion by 2025. However, investing solely in defensive infrastructure is no longer sufficient. Employees must also receive appropriate training and acquire the knowledge needed to counter increasingly complex attacks.

Greater Focus on Training and Upskilling Programs

Technology – whether hardware or software – may be world-class, but it’s useless if people can’t operate it properly or inadvertently open the door to cybercriminals through human error. For companies, therefore, training and upskilling employees is paramount to successfully defending systems and networks against attacks. According to Skillsoft, since 2019 the time employees spend acquiring new cybersecurity skills has increased by 53 percent. Sharp spikes in engagement with cybersecurity topics are especially evident following security incidents – such as major data breaches at companies or large-scale hacker attacks.

Which Training Programs Are Most Widely Used

Still, 75 percent of IT security decision-makers report that their employees are insufficiently trained and qualified to effectively protect themselves and their organizations against cyberattacks. Cloud security training is particularly in demand – driven by the rapid expansion of remote work and corporate reliance on cloud-based applications. Courses on the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) are currently among the most popular.