To stay safe in terms of cyber security, you must separate fact from fiction. Hacking and forms of cyber crime are nothing new. However, one recent study reveals the problem is far more severe than any of us thought. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, almost 178 million personal records were stolen during breaches in 2015 alone. The cost of handling these attacks amounted to $400 billion during the same year – a number that’s expected to climb to $2.1 trillion by 2019.
There are many myths surrounding cyber crime. Shattering three of the most prominent ones is the best way to ensure you, your employees and your organization stay safe moving forward.
Perhaps the most popular cyber security myth is the idea that if you’re not a large enterprise you don’t have to worry about getting hacked. Many believe that hackers tend to go where the money is, and if you’re running a small or medium-sized business, you’re a small fish in a big pond that probably won’t attract their attention.
This is false. The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) revealed that 61% of data breach victims in 2016 were companies with under 1,000 employees. Hackers are smart, and their attempts are getting more sophisticated all the time. Phishing, ransomware and other hacking techniques target small businesses in particular, as they’re the most likely to NOT have a cyber security plan in place.
NOBODY is immune from these and other types of attacks. The more you do to educate your employees and defend against cybercrime, the more you’re likely to stay safe.
Many people think that if they invest in a cyber security solution, and keep it updated and configured properly, they have absolutely nothing to worry about. Again, this is false. Even a state-of-the-art antivirus suite can’t guard against something like user error.
The reason why attacks like ransomware are so effective is that they trick users who aren’t informed about the latest hacking techniques. This is one of the many reasons why cyber security education should always be a primary focus for your organization.
Any employee who handles data must undergo security compliance training and understand how to implement security measures. A data-security policy that starts from the top down, and that you strictly enforce company-wide, is essential. Training your staff to identify and mitigate cyber security threats is one of the best ways you can reduce the chance that you’ll be breached.
Unfortunately, even when a business owner acknowledges that their organization could be a target of hacking, they often believe they lack the funds to properly defend against it.
Think about the consequences of a breach. We’re not just talking about downtime and lost productivity – We’re talking about irreparable damage to your business’ reputation, expensive legal fees, damaging regulatory penalties, lost customers, and so much more—all because you want to save a little money.
Think about the days or weeks following a potential attack and ask yourself which expense will be larger: The cyber security protections you put in place, or the costs of the points noted above? This could l mean the difference between surviving an attack, and being forced to close your doors.
Implementing cyber security measures is a smaller investment than you probably think it is. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that nearly $1 trillion will be spent on cyber security between 2017 and 2022. Getting on this “bandwagon” today could ensure your business is still here tomorrow.
No matter what business you operate, one thing is clear – Getting attacked is no longer a question of “if” but “when.” You must ensure you’re doing everything you can to stay safe.
Forty-three percent of attacks are aimed at SMBs, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves (Accenture).
More than 33 billion records will be stolen by cybercriminals by 2023, an increase of 175% from 2018.
The internal team was energized. With the Level 1 work off its plate, the team turned its attention to the work that fueled company growth and gave them job satisfaction.
The three sectors with the biggest spending on cybersecurity are banking, manufacturing, and the central/federal government, accounting for 30% of overall spending (IDC).
It takes an average of 287 days for security teams to identify and contain a data breach, according to the “Cost of a Data Breach 2021” report released by IBM and Ponemon Institute.
The cost of cybercrime is predicted to hit $10.5 trillion by 2025, according to the latest version of the Cisco/Cybersecurity Ventures “2022 Cybersecurity Almanac.”.
The average cost of a data breach in the United States is $8.64 million, which is the highest in the world, while the most expensive sector for data breach costs is the healthcare industry, with an average of $7.13 million (IBM).
40% of businesses will incorporate the anywhere operations model to accommodate the physical and digital experiences of both customers and employees (Techvera).
We did a proof of concept that met every requirement that our customer might have. In fact, we saw a substantial improvement.
We did everything that we needed to do, financially speaking. We got our invoices out to customers, we deposited checks, all the things we needed to do to keep our business running, and our customers had no idea about the tragedy. It didn’t impact them at all.
“We believe our success is due to the strength of our team, the breadth of our services, our flexibility in responding to clients, and our focus on strategic support.”