Digital attacks and threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, creating a critical challenge for maintaining satisfactory levels of protection in IT environments. The ever-decreasing cost of hardware, increased processing power, and the development of complex flaw exploitation techniques add to the complexity of incidents.
Perimeter protection is no longer enough to protect indoor environments. The use of social engineering to circumvent endpoint protections is increasingly common, and the exponential increase in the volume of data stored and digitally trafficked by companies creates real gold mines for cybercriminals, who use the human factor as a key to the success of attacks. It is also estimated that 1/3 of all security breaches are caused by human error.
Be prepared for the cost of failure
For many companies, the perception of the damage that a security breach can cause is not clear and these companies may even need to permanently stop their activities due to the incidents. If your company is in this group, here are some post-failure effects faced by companies that experience security incidents:
Notification and response costs
These costs include the process of notifying customers, government entities, and regulatory agencies that may legally require to be notified. Other related costs include demand growth in fulfillment, PR, and marketing channels.
Brand image reconstruction
After a data leak or public security breach, the company must carry out an investment plan in communication that can recover the value of its brand and the trust of consumers.
Lower productivity and employee outflow
Companies that are victims of security breaches may encounter additional costs related to the production capacity of their employees, impacted by the incident, or even the need to focus on activities outside the work routine to contain or recover information lost after the failure. An account manager, for example, instead of working on new business, will waste time trying to maintain and retrieve data from their active wallet. The CEO will prepare a presentation for the board and investors to communicate a turnaround plan instead of working on closing key deals. Marketing should invest in PR and planning to create communication actions that avoid loss of value for the brand.
Additional Infrastructure and Audit Investments
After a security breach, IT and security managers should plan to invest resources in recovering their IT infrastructure, hardware and/or software compromised by the security breach. Investors, business partners, and customers may require audits to prove that there are no further risks associated with doing business with the company.
Regulatory fines
In a highly regulated market (health, financial, governmental) it is not uncommon for the company to be penalized with heavy fines due to the breach of confidentiality of customer information, the fines can reach millionaire amounts or even compromise the company’s entire revenue.
Legal Processes and Settlements
A company that has its business compromised due to security breaches can expect, immediately or in the medium/long term, legal action from customers who have not had their contracts fulfilled due to business interruption, or worse, have had their confidential data leaked. If the company is publicly traded, it is not uncommon for shareholders to file compensation actions to recover the amount lost in their investments due to the fall in the price of the company’s shares.
The loss of data and the additional damage caused by threats can seriously impact the operation of companies and if for large corporations the monetary risk is immense, for small and medium-sized companies it can represent the end of the business.
Read also: 5 consequences of corporate data leakage
The best strategy is defense
Keep your software up-to-date at all times
An outdated computer, server, or any other IT asset is more susceptible to attacks. Hackers constantly monitor the discovery of new vulnerabilities and exploit them until patches are created and implemented. If the company uses outdated solutions, it will keep an open door for threats. Run a scan for vulnerabilities every time there is a device update or switch.
Implement a Data Loss Plan (DLP)
The company’s data is kept most of the time at “rest”, which means that it is stored on the devices. An efficient DLP plan analyzes data in real time that is in motion or in use on users’ devices. IT managers must have solutions that analyze this information traffic and point out any volume that is not usual or allowed for that user.
Educate your employees
As already highlighted, the human factor is critical in maintaining information security. There is no point in investing in security solutions if employees are not aware of the risks that cyber threats can cause. Employees should be able to identify signs of a security breach or actions that could put the company at risk by avoiding them.
Protect your network with a firewall
A firewall is a technology that prevents unauthorized access to your internal network infrastructure.If the company has external users, the firewall allows the creation of VPN (Virtual Private Networks) connections that apply security features and protect that employee’s access to the company’s IT environment.
Implement security policies
The company has to establish what its business objectives are, what is allowed and what is not. The configuration of security policies involves the definition of several points:
- Rules for access to online services and portals, social networks, apps and file sharing services in the cloud;
- Authentication of users through strong passwords (those with lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers and symbols), these passwords must be changed every 60-90 days;
- Limit the access of employees to data and information, with authentication control it is possible to limit the access of a certain group of users according to their role in the company, so managers can restrict access to sensitive information only to those employees who need it;
- Implement a secure, encrypted, hidden Wi-Fi network, create a guest network that is separate from the internal infrastructure, and be sure to change the default password for routers and other appliances.
Watch the video also: How to keep your internet safe
With more than 5,000 clients, Blockbit is one of the leading manufacturers of cybersecurity solutions, empowering businesses to protect themselves against a wide range of threats, vulnerabilities, and cyberattacks, whether internal or external, generic or specific.