Cybersecurity has evolved since the early days of the Internet. With so many threats out there, where should your business concentrate their time and resources? We can’t stress enough the importance of securing your network and connected hardware. But where should you start?
WORK TRENDS OPEN UP RISK FOR CYBERSECURITY THREATS
Based on the last year of new business trends — mainly the wide-spread adoption of remote work — employees who are now spending their workdays at home (often on unsecure networks and vulnerable devices), we suggest the following areas of focus.
- Remotely-connected employees.
Remote workers will continue to be a target for cybercriminals, because their home networks tend to be lightly protected. And their work can more easily spread to personal devices, which do not include the same strenuous guards as company-owned ones. - Cloud-based applications and processes.
As a side effect of remote workforces, cloud breaches will increase. While on-site access to company information can be better regulated on your own networks, it’s easier for breaches on unsecure connections. - Email phishing.
Employees’ email addresses have always been a target of hacking scams. It’s like letting thieves enter through your front door. Hackers have gotten more nuanced in their targeting and disguising their messages to make them look legitimate. Similarly, users seem to have gotten less skilled at identifying illegitimate phishing schemes.
EYE-OPENING CYBERSECURITY THREATS STATISTICS
To give you an idea of the overall security environment, we’ve compiled sobering statistics for 2021. This should demonstrate the frequency and urgency for cybersecurity in every part of a business. From data breaches, hacking, different types of cybercrime, and costs, here’s an overview of how attacks happen.
- Human error causes 95% of cybersecurity breaches.
- Only about 5% of companies’ data are effectively protected, on average.
- In the first half of 2020, 36 billion records were exposed by data breaches.
- 37% of malicious email attachment types are documents (like Word documents)
CYBERSECURITY THREATS IS AN ISSUE FOR EVERYONE
Companies big and small are targets for cybercriminals. Cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated and better funded to do more damage. Here are a few examples of businesses that have suffered from data breaches and attacks over the last few years.
- In 2020, accounts of past presidents and Elon Musk were targeted in a Twitter breach. Over 130 accounts resulted in attackers swindling $121,000 in Bitcoin through nearly 300 transactions.
- In 2020, more than 5.2 million hotel guests’ data were impacted in a Marriott security breach
- In 2019, 142 hotel guests had their records leaked in an MGM data breach
- In 2018, Marriott-Starwood had an information breach of 500 million consumers, dating back to 2014.
- In 2018, the “My Fitness Pal” was hacked, impacting 150 million users.
- In 2017, Equifax had 147.9 million consumers affected by a breach.
We feel it is important to not only identify threats, but also identify the mitigation of those threats and security gaps that companies have. Starting today, you can choose to move forward and minimize the rise of attacks with your current resources or by improving your security posture.
If cloud computing management and security is on your to-do list, your plan of action should be decided and laid out. Your entire organization can begin to be alleviating from the number of attacks and to close those security gaps you may have. Get in touch with us today to gain an edge against these attacks and protect your business.