Page 39 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Special RSA Conference Annual Edition for 2022

criminals. But crime fighting is not the most effective way to combat cybercrime. It would be far more
effective to find a way to block the criminals before their attacks reach their targets. Now, you might say
that these methods have been around for years. But if they were effective, wouldn’t the cost of cybercrime
be dropping?

The truth is that cybersecurity solutions for regular people are missing an element that causes them to
be far less effective than they need to be. It’s not that they are lacking in technology standards or features.
There are many consumer cybersecurity solutions that are very good at what they do. The problem is
that people either don’t use them properly, or don’t use them at all. It’s hard to pinpoint why that is exactly.
But it probably lies somewhere between the fact that people are just busy with their lives and don’t get
around to cybersecurity tasks and the fact that there are so many options available that people don’t
know which ones are reliable.

When it comes to cybersecurity solutions for large enterprises, no expense is spared. There are teams
of professionals using an array of advanced tools to block, isolate, eliminate and prevent infections and
attacks. Meanwhile, as robust and effective as consumer tools for cybersecurity might be, the vast
majority of consumers lack the skills and even the basic knowledge to protect themselves properly, even
with a wide selection of available tools. What’s more, regular people need to be protected from infection
and attacks when they are connected to their mobile networks, in their home networks and when
connected to guest Wi-Fi networks. They need to protect all their devices, all of the time.

One particular vulnerability comes from IoT devices in people’s homes. The number of IoT devices
ranging from home appliances, to surveillance devices and home automation, is skyrocketing. Each
device acts as an open door for cybercriminals to invade people’s home network. With limited CPU and
memory, most IoT devices are designed with little or no capacity for security measures. Since passwords
are often left as the default, if there are passwords at all, IoT devices make easy entry points into the
network, giving cybercriminals access to personal data and other digital assets. These and other
vulnerabilities leave consumers wide open to attacks and infections.

That doesn’t mean that regular people are not interested in protecting themselves. In a recent survey by
Allot and Coleman Parkes Research, consumers expressed concern with virus infection (62%), loss of
privacy (59%), loss of sensitive data (59%), phishing attacks (51%) and other consequences of cyber
threats. In fact, they responded that they would, on average, be willing to pay $4.74 per month for a
comprehensive cybersecurity service provided by their CSP. However, in North America, 53% of
respondents said that they were not investing in securing their Internet-connected devices because they
did not know how to do it. In other words, consumers are concerned about cyber threats, and they are
willing to pay to be protected as long as it is easy.

In the same survey, 90% of respondents globally said that they believed that their internet provider should
also provide the security to protect them when they use the Internet. In fact, 68% said they would switch
providers to be on a more secure network. This raises the question: Where should consumers get their
cybersecurity protection?

Based on the responses of consumers, there is good reason to believe that communication service
providers can provide cybersecurity protection services that their customers will trust enough to subscribe
and use. This can be the case as long as the price is right and subscribers do not have to do much to

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