The Growing Need for Cybersecurity in the Business Industry
Cyber threats have always been a cause for concern in the online world, but they’re now more prevalent than ever. This is partly due to how the pandemic spurred businesses worldwide to migrate their services to the cloud or other virtual platforms.
While this brought about a new level of convenience and safety for organizations, it also came with its fair share of security risks. Some businesses lacked the appropriate systems to pinpoint and prevent breaches in their infrastructure. In fact, during the first quarter of last year, the number of large-scale data breaches rose by 273%.
Ransomware and data or network destruction were among the most common types of cyber attacks. But apart from the lack of cybersecurity systems, many businesses also lacked the necessary knowledge or technical expertise to protect against them.
No Business is Safe from Cybersecurity Attacks
Many businesses seem to think that it’s only big companies that are targeted by cybercriminals, such as Fortune 500 companies, like Marriott and Magellan Health. However, this is untrue. Ransomware attacks in 2020 targeted the public sector, the manufacturing industry, educational institutions, and the healthcare sector. Of these industries, it was healthcare organizations that were most targeted, and this is primarily due to the price medical records bring on the black market. In addition, it has been easier to target this sector as they scramble to deal with the pandemic and provide patient care. In this day and age, organizations can’t afford to take their eye off the ball when it comes to security, even in the hardest times. Unfortunately, cyber criminals are happy to exploit even the worst situations.
Cyber Crime Puts Customers at Risk
It isn’t just businesses that are harmed by cybersecurity attacks. Customer data is also at risk. Consumers share a considerable amount of sensitive information when they engage with businesses online. It can be something as simple as sharing their email address or typing their credit card details.
If cyber criminals gain access to this critical data, they can use it to exploit individuals and organizations. Businesses could face financial loss from compensating their affected clients and losing their trust. In addition, cybersecurity attacks cause reputational damage to businesses that have experienced a data breach that they may never recover from.
A great example of the effect this can have on a business is the cyberattack on the Efficient Services Escrow Group. This California-based company lost a total of $1.5 million in 2012. Cyber criminals infected their firm’s digital networks with a trojan, then executed three wire transfers from the company’s funds to off-shore bank accounts in Russia and China. Interestingly enough, the first wire transfer was done in December 2012, but no one noticed until February the next year. While the company managed to reclaim the money from one of the wire transfers, the other two were unaccounted for. And this ultimately forced the company to close its doors.
The Cybersecurity Talent Gap
Cybercrime turned into its own crisis during the pandemic. However, implementing the necessary protective measures is easier said than done, given the shortfall of qualified cybersecurity professionals. Cybercrime magazine predicted that we would have 3.5 million unfulfilled jobs by 2021 and we are very close to that at present. The problem is that the industry is not producing talent at a rate fast enough to catch up with criminals.
To fast-track the growth of the number of professionals, educational institutions have pushed their cybersecurity degrees to the forefront in an effort to find more talent. Even non-cybersecurity degrees are adapting to implement classes about it in their curriculum.
This is particularly true of online business administration degrees which already give students more flexibility compared to traditional degrees. Top tier universities that offer online business administration degrees allow students to customize their course to include cybersecurity alongside their core subjects. This better equips future entrepreneurs with the cybersecurity knowledge they need to thrive in a digitalized industry. Initiatives like these are helping the cybersecurity talent gap decrease and giving businesses a wider pool of experts to choose from.
Managed IT Services Reduce the Concern of Cybersecurity Attacks for Businesses
For now, the best companies can do is work with cybersecurity professionals such as Comport to improve company data strategies. Companies across the board are now starting to practice basic protection measures, like backing up their data to a secure source, choosing multiple options for backup and making use of multi-factor authentication for all their accounts and databases.
Businesses have also started implementing encryption services to reduce the risk of data theft, destruction, or tampering. With the help of a cybersecurity professional, companies can implement a protection program that best suits their needs. But outside of cybersecurity measures, companies have also begun to invest in cyber training for their employees, given that lack of awareness only exacerbates the risk.
If your business needs to up its cybersecurity game, you’re going to need to upgrade the systems in place. Comport can assist you in this by implementing layered security options for threat detection, network security, managed IT services, and more. Contact us today to discuss your cybersecurity options and secure your business against cyber threats or get started by requesting a Disaster Recovery assessment performed by our in-house technology experts.
Blog Written by Mari Paige
