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| Image via CrunchBase |
Cyber risks are a growing concern for every company, no matter the industry. The storage and transfer of data have become necessary parts of doing business, and “putting it out there,” so to speak, increases the chance of a hack-attack.
File sharing in particular is a major concern for organizations concerned about their sensitive or proprietary data. With services like Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft’s SkyDrive gaining traction daily, IT professionals need an effective way to manage and monitor the flow of their data. It’s for this reason that both our Harbinger and Nemesis services include a dedicated file sharing category, giving you the ability to control the transfer and integrity of your data.
This month we’ll be looking at three cyber risks most often identified by companies open to disclosure. The first risk is loss or theft of confidential information, which has become even more of a concern for companies and individuals in this post-NSA PRISM world.
Each year, security threats continue to be more costly and require greater vigilance as evidenced in a recent settlement that cost Sony more than $383,000 in UK-based fines for a 2011 breach of its PlayStation Network. Nintendo also faced similar issues in June of this year with more than 15 million hacking attempts resulting in 24,000 breaches in a single month, according to CBR Online.
The average cost of a breach lasting 3-5 days for a small company is $35,000 – $65,000. For a large company, that number grows to a staggering $400,000 – $840,000. If at first glance those figures seem high, consider the cost of the following: time spent responding to incident, lost business, lost assets, reputational damage, and that’s before any compliance issues or fines.
The more your business grows, the more likely it will attract the interest of cyber-attacks. So what can you do to protect yourself?
1. Pinpoint the associated risks for the types of data that are important to your business.
2. Define your security policy.
3. Implement.
4. Review and revise.
Final word of warning: don’t think this is one-size-fits-all. Prevention is dependent on your company’s needs, and could involve establishing Internet use protection or safeguards against intrusion or remote access safety measures for backing up and accessing data.
Know what you need, and make sure you get it. For more information about our Harbinger and Nemesis services, visit us at defintel.com
