Whether we like it or not, most of us are totally dependent on our smartphones. Since we use this mobile technology for both personal and professional tasks, it often feels like our lifeline – our strongest connection to the people we care about and the world at-large.
Typically when you hear about a data breach on
the news or on the Internet, the most common response is “That couldn’t happen
to us.”
That’s the sort of opinion that is already
outdated and getting less true all the time in the world of digital technology
and online businesses. Data breaches are not just a threat, but new data
reveals they have hit 57% of all businesses in the last three years. Some might
be accidental, some might be an internal malfunction or insider hack job, but a
ton of them are performed by real criminals using real tours to blast their way
through limited or non-functioning security to exposure data from companies, largely
for the point of selling it on the Dark Web.
Add to that 24% that have been hit in the
first six months of 2019 and you realize it’s not a trend, it’s an epidemic.
Blind Leading the Blind
The irony of those two numbers above is that
they are identical to statistics about how companies are viewing their own
cybersecurity. According to a poll of
some 6,000 information security professionals around the globe, 81% of them
think their IT security is either very good (57%) or 24% (good). The bitter
irony that those are the exact same numbers as the companies suffering data
breaches. As is so often the case, the left-hand does not know what the right
hand is doing when it comes to IT security. It is in these types of
circumstances that criminals and hackers thrive. If 81% of IT personnel think a
good job is being done, how can there possibly be so many data leaks? Internal
communication failure is a big part of this. IT staff might brief every new
hire on how to maintain proper security, but if there are no follow-ups,
reminders, and refresher type training, those early lessons are going to get
forgotten quickly. Imagine a new hire at a firm getting a security training
from IT, but also getting new information on everything from where to park to
how to use a key entry system to the actual parameters of their job, etc.
Information, like changing your password every 90 days and not opening any
email, not from another employee, will be quickly forgotten. It is the job of
the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to
set up a culture where data is treated like gold and breaches like a bank
robbery. Employees that share credentials, refuse to change passwords or lose
company equipment should be reprimanded.
Biggest Threats
The biggest threats to companies in 2019 based on the
same poll including phishing (36%), trojans (29%), ransomware
(28%), legal/compliance risks (28%), unpatched software (24%), DDoS attacks
(24%), and social media threats (22%). A really astute antimalware software package
can greatly assist companies in neutralizing most, but not all of these
threats. The remainder must be dealt with by humans, not machines, who are
dedicated to keeping intruders out of their system regardless of what form they
take.
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