BusinessHABData breach: Do you know what happens when a hacker gets their hands on your company’s data?
They unleash a data breach, causing irreparable damage to your brand.
A breach can expose private information from customers or employees, like names, addresses, and social security numbers.
It can also reveal confidential business information such as user logins, company documents, and account details.
These breaches give hackers the keys to impersonate users of your business with ease or even sell your customer list to other bad actors looking to exploit trust for financial gain.
As cybercriminals grow savvier and more tech-savvy businesses continue to fall victim to cyberattacks.
However, none of this need be the end of the world if you take precautionary measures before it even begins.
In this blog post we’ll share insider knowledge on the latest data breach trends, why they occur and what you can do to mitigate risk in your organization.
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The Ultimate Guide to Preventing Data Breaches
Data breaches are a serious risk for businesses of all sizes. In fact, the average cost of a data breach increased by 48% in 2018, reaching an all-time high of $210 per record breached. If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance that your business could be at risk of a data breach. You probably know that hackers and cybercriminals lurk around every corner searching for vulnerabilities they can exploit. However, you might not know that as much as 80% of data breaches are preventable with the right security protocols in place. Keeping sensitive data secure is imperative to keeping your company safe and secure from cyberattacks. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to help protect your company from cybercriminals.
Put a stop to ransomware with proper backup practices
There are few threats as damaging as ransomware. Ransomware uses malicious software that blocks access to your data and demands a ransom payment in exchange for access to your data again. While this threat exists in many forms, HerdProtect has found that one of the most lucrative varieties of ransomware is the network-based variety. Network-based ransomware can be delivered to your company through an email attachment or a malicious link hidden within a phishing email. To protect your company against this devastating threat, it’s important to understand the importance of proper data backup practices. Data backups are critical when it comes to fighting off ransomware. If ransomware infects your computer, but you have a data backup, you can easily restore your data from an unaffected computer. Without a data backup, you are at risk of losing all of your data. Data backups are available in various forms, such as on-site, cloud-based, or hybrid. The best form of backup depends on your specific needs.
Ensure your software is current and patched
Outdated software and unpatched vulnerabilities are often the cause of data breaches. This is especially true for software that uses remote connections, like web browsers and email applications, since these are the most likely to be exposed to online threats. With that in mind, you should always make it a priority to ensure your software is up to date and patched to protect against zero-day vulnerabilities. For example, Microsoft Office is an incredibly common application used by a wide variety of businesses. Unfortunately, it also has a long history of remote code execution vulnerabilities that have been exploited by malicious actors. If you want to protect yourself against these threats, you need to make sure your software is up to date. You can do this manually by logging into the software’s website and checking for updates. Alternatively, you can set automatic updates so you don’t even have to think about it. It’s also important to note that some software, like web browsers and email applications, automatically update themselves. But other applications, like operating systems, don’t typically have an automatic update feature. In these cases, you’ll have to manually log into the application’s website and check for updates. In almost all cases, it’s worth the time and effort as it’s the best way to ensure that you have the most up-to-date software possible.
Use multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an essential security measure that can help protect against account takeover, data breaches, and other malicious attacks. A standard login process only requires a password, which is the weakest form of authentication. As such, it’s not surprising that MFA is one of the most important security practices that businesses can implement. There are many ways to implement MFA, such as with biometrics or a security token. However, most businesses use a software-based authentication system that generates a one-time passcode (OTP). MFA is an essential part of website security and should be enabled on every website that offers it. If a website doesn’t support MFA, then you should avoid using that website until they implement it.
Install an intrusion detection system
An intrusion detection system (IDS) is one of the most important security tools you can have in your security toolkit. An IDS detects malicious activity happening on your network, such as attempts to log in to your network, cybercriminals attempting to send malicious emails, or the attempt to install malicious software. An IDS can also help you detect network intrusions, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. It’s important that you select the right type of IDS for your network. There are two main types of IDS: network-based systems and host-based systems. A network-based IDS monitors the traffic across your network, while a host-based IDS monitors activity on a specific computer. A network-based IDS is best for small businesses that don’t have the resources to install a host-based IDS on each computer.
Monitor everything – especially unusual behaviour
Your network contains an infinite number of logs – everything from system logs to user activity. These logs aren’t monitored by default and are often left unread, but they are critical in defending against data breaches. You need to monitor all of your logs, but monitoring all of your logs is not enough. Monitoring your logs is important, but you also need to be able to react to the data they contain. You need to be able to proactively identify unusual behaviour on your network and take the appropriate action to halt an attack or prevent further damage. You can do this by setting up event triggers in your SIEM solution. Event triggers let you set certain conditions that, when met, trigger a certain action. For example, you can set an event trigger to send an alert if an IP address attempts to log into your network with an administrator account. This way, you know when someone is attempting to log into your network with an administrator account and can take the appropriate action to stop the attack.
Conclusion
Data breaches are unfortunately a part of doing business in the digital age. It is estimated that one in five companies will experience a data breach in 2019. In order to safeguard your company from such a fate, it is essential to follow several best practices including putting a stop to ransomware with proper backup practices, updating software and apps, using multi-factor authentication on all accounts, and monitoring network activity for unusual behaviour. By following these tips, you can help to prevent a data breach from happening to your company.
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