Cyberattacks are nothing to take lightly. Every year, they cause millions of dollars of damage to unprepared and unprotected businesses, which leads to many of these businesses’ failure. Let’s talk about what ultimately causes cyberattacks, so you know the kinds of situations and behaviors to keep an eye out for.
This is the one that most people would think of, when they think of a cyberattack. Various types of malware—for instance, spyware—are regularly used for the express purpose of extracting data from data storage. That being said, a data breach doesn’t even necessarily mean that data was stolen… it just means that it was accessed. Regardless, there are countless malware samples and variants out there that pose a threat to business security.
Phishing is a very common tactic for cybercriminals to use as a means of gaining data, or access to data, in a remarkably low-tech way: subterfuge. All the cybersecurity protections in the world won’t protect your data if an employee has been fooled into sharing it.
Insider threats are, unfortunately, a real threat. A disgruntled team member could easily steal data for their own gain or even just as a means of damaging your business’ reputation. While it isn’t pleasant to think of your team members in this way, it unfortunately needs to be a consideration.
Of course, there is also the possibility that your employees are creating trouble for you as a means of making a political or social statement—not intending to hurt you, necessarily, but doing so as a side effect of their own mission. Obviously, the fact that no malice is directed to you is a small comfort compared to the impact this breach will have on your business.
If you’re sick of hearing about how important solid password practices are, imagine how sick we are of saying it. Nevertheless, poor password practices are still responsible for a great number of data breaches, despite numerous tools now being available to make more secure practices much easier.
Now, what happens if a device is misplaced? Not only is this an expensive mistake to make, in terms of hardware, but without the proper precautions put in place, it could easily mean that any data on the lost hardware has officially been breached.
Finally, we have to address the inherent vulnerability of hard copies of your data. Not only are they more vulnerable to data loss in general, they are just easier for an enterprising criminal to steal. It would be advisable to reconsider which documents are ultimately put to paper and retained.
We’ll be touching on a few ways you can make your business more secure a little later in the week, but if you’d like to learn more a little sooner, you can always reach out to us at (571) 470-5594.
