Cyberattacks: How can companies mitigate risks?

Aurélien Fleurot, edited by Alexandre Dalifard 06h28, 09 April 2023

The International Cybersecurity Forum in Lille ended this Saturday with among the issues discussed, the growing risks for companies. While many cyberattacks have targeted hospitals or town halls in recent weeks, this represents a permanent danger for companies. In France, nearly half of them were victims of a cyberattack in 2022, according to the CESIN barometer. And with major consequences since one in two SMEs goes bankrupt within 18 months of a cyberattack.

Less than 1% of SMEs are insured against cyber risks

The paradox is that it is now rather simple to protect yourself. It is still necessary to know the ways to defend oneself. For example, less than 1% of small and medium-sized businesses are insured against cyber risks. This would make it possible to anticipate the different types of attacks, as Charlotte Couallier, co-founder of the start-up Dattak, explains.

"In fact, we scan the company every week and if we see that there is an update that it has not made, that there is a new flaw that it has not corrected, we send it an email and alert it to warn it to do so as soon as possible. We will do everything to upgrade the company's activity without having to negotiate with hackers," she said.

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Permanent updates are facilitated by the use of the cloud, i.e. by remotely storing databases and company servers. A protection acclaimed by large groups as noted by Stephan Hadinger, technical director of Amazon Web Services in France: "This is an opportunity to set up automatic updating and to plug all these vulnerabilities from the beginning."

Whatever your field of activity, if you are not a target, you will be in a very short time, "he says at the microphone of Europe 1. Another major challenge for companies is to train employees. The human flaw remains the favorite gateway for cybercriminals.