In 82% of breaches, attackers take just minutes to compromise a system and 63% of confirmed breaches were due to weak, default or stolen passwords according to the 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report from Verizon. Once breached, attackers can linger for days within the system.
No industry or system is bulletproof when it involves compromised data. Discovering the breach and learning how it was carried out is vital. This helps in preventing repeat breaches and additional losses in revenue.
If on a tight budget and given limited resources devoted to your business’s security, knowing how hackers tend to attack your specific online business can help you focus on preventing data breaches more efficiently. Spreading out limited resources to a “one size fits all” security plan may have some major weak spots in a thin and outstretched front line on security.
Staying Vigilant
Even if a firm’s internal security is good, introducing third-party communication and service provider services may introduce additional unnecessary risk as well as complicate security. This also introduces more points of vulnerability such as employee phishing emails being opened.
The internet is of itself is a target for cybercriminals to obtain protected data. Online companies are sources for more sensitive data all available in a single location as opposed to small bits of data spread out on the Internet. This makes online companies a constant target.
At the same time, individual employees (and virtually anyone connected to the internet in some way) have to be constantly aware of phishing and scams aiming at stealing financial credentials and sensitive files.
Data breaches will continue to occur because there are always others who are willing to pay for this stolen information. Cybercriminals are always willing and able to supply this demand.
The number of data breaches and incidents increases every year for various reasons;
More connected devices due to The Internet of Things,
More hackers, bigger profits from selling stolen data thus resulting in more data breaches/incidents,
An increase in online business coming online with very little knowledge of internet security etc.
Most data on cybercrime and security have numbers and statistics on breaches. However few have data on those breaches that have gone undetected. Many companies learn from breaches via a third-party security service.
Incident Response Plan
Knowing that a breach is going to happen is one of the best defenses in fighting cybercrime. A solid incident response plan will allow a company to recover more promptly. What must follow a detected breach is a response to the incident. Quick remediation to minimize large financial and repeat losses must follow. Just as important is discovering how the breach was successful or it will simply occur again. If breaches were a result of dealing with outside services then that partnership needs to be looked into. Not learning from a data breach is not a good incident response plan.
Services that are growing in popularity are security services that are able to determine the cause of the data breach and also have that firm retain or use their security services on a regular basis.