Businesses of all sizes now need to invest in cyber-digital security because bad actors have been attacking systems and networks that contain sensitive and valuable data. It is made to guard against theft and damage to all types of data.
Without a cyber security plan, your company will be unable to protect itself from online risks, leaving it open to attack from malevolent parties who will see it as an easy target. The inherent and residual dangers have steadily increased over time as technology has advanced. Businesses increasingly employ more practical techniques to conduct their operations. For instance, data can now be kept on the cloud, or in the case of many companies, on cloud services like Amazon Web Services.
Businesses today employ more practical techniques to conduct their operations. For instance, data can be saved in the cloud, or, more specifically, many companies use cloud services like Amazon Web Services to store their important data. Despite being practical, businesses rarely sufficiently protect their data while using these cloud services. Coupled with an increase in attacker sophistication, this has increased the danger that your company will fall victim to a successful cyberattack or data breach.
What Changes Has Cybercrime Undergone Throughout Time?
With more frequent, targeted, and sophisticated cyberattacks than ever before, cybercrime is at an all-time high. The average cost of cybercrime for an organization has climbed by $1.4 million over the last year to $13.0 million, and the average number of data breaches has increased by 11% to 145, according to Accenture and the Ponemon Institute’s Ninth Annual Cost of Cybercrime Study.
Businesses’ data is being targeted by criminals more frequently; information theft is the most costly and rapidly expanding category of cybercrime. The fact that more companies are storing personally identifiable information on the cloud, increasing its exposure, is evidence for this. It’s crucial to remember, though, that there are other viable objectives besides thievery.
Considering the Importance of Cybersecurity
The significance of cybersecurity is growing. Fundamentally speaking, there is no indication that our civilization will become less dependent on technology. Identity theft-related data dumps are now openly announced on social media sites. Cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive are now used to store private data, including social security numbers, credit card numbers, and bank account information.
The truth is that everyone uses computer systems on a daily basis, whether they are individuals, small businesses, or giant multinationals. Along with the proliferation of cloud services, lax cloud service security, smartphones, and the Internet of Things (IoT), this has led to a number of previously unknown security vulnerabilities.
We now have a wide range of possible security risks that weren’t present a few decades ago when we combined this with the rise in cloud services, lax cloud service security, smartphones, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Even though the two fields of expertise are becoming more comparable, we still need to comprehend the distinction between cybersecurity and information security.
Cybercrimes are receiving increased attention from governments all around the world. An excellent example is GDPR. It has heightened the harm to an organization’s reputation caused by data breaches by requiring all businesses doing business in the EU to:
- Inform people of data breaches
- Make a data protection officer appointment
- Obtain user permissions before processing information
- Data anonymization for privacy
Public disclosure is becoming more and more popular, not just in Europe, for disaster recovery. All 50 states in the US have data breach legislation, even though there are no federal regulations governing data breach disclosure. Among the similarities are:
- Obligation to contact those who would be impacted as soon as possible
- Inform the government as soon as you can.
- Pay a fine of some kind.
Bottom Line
As a result, frameworks for online identity security and other parameters have been released by standards bodies like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to assist organizations in understanding their security risks, enhancing their cybersecurity defenses, and preventing cyberattacks.
