Why is cyber security important? | UpGuard (2023)

Cyber ​​securityis important because it protects all categories of data from theft and damage. This includes sensitive data,personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), personal information, intellectual property, data, and government and industry information systems. Without a cybersecurity program, your organization cannot defend against data breach campaigns, making it an irresistible target for cybercriminals.

Obainherent riskiresidual riskare growing, driven by global connectivity and the use of cloud services, such as Amazon Web Servicesstore sensitive dataand personal data. Expandedpoor configuration of cloud servicescoupled with increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals means the risk of your organization suffering a successful cyber attack ordata breaches are on the rise.

Business leaders can no longer rely solely on off-the-shelf cybersecurity solutions such as antivirus software and firewalls, cybercriminals are becoming smarter, and their tactics are becoming more resistant to conventional cyber defenses. It's important to cover everythingfields of cyber securitystay well protected.

Cyber ​​threats can come from any levelyour organization. Jobs must include cybersecurity awareness trainingeducate staffabout commoncyber threatslike social engineering scams,phishing,ransomware attacks(meditateWannaCry), and othersmalwaredesigned to steal intellectual property or personal information.

Theproliferation of data breachesmeans that cybersecurity is not only relevant to highly regulated industries, such as healthcare. Even small businesses are at risk of sufferingirreparable reputation damageafter a data breach.

To help you understand the importance of cyber security, we have put together a post explaining the various elements of cyber crime that you may not be aware of. If you're not already worried about cybersecurity risks, you should be.

What is cyber security?

Cybersecurity is the state or process of protecting and recovering computer systems, networks, devices and programs fromany type of cyber attack. Cyber ​​attacks are increasingly sophisticated andgrowing threat to your sensitive data, as attackers use new methods powered by social engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) to bypass traditionaldata securitycontrol.

The fact is that the world is becoming more and more reliant on technology and that reliance will continue as we introduce a new generation of new technology that will have access to our connected devices via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

To keep customer data protected as you embrace new technology, intelligent cloud security solutions should be implemented along with strong password policies such asmulti-factor authenticationsootheunauthorized access.

Read our full guide on cyber security here.

The importance of cyber security

The importance of cyber security is increasing. Basically, our society is more technological than ever before and there is no sign of that trend slowing down.Data leakwhich could resultIdentity theftthey are now publicly posted on social media accounts. Sensitive information such as social security numbers, credit card information, and bank account information are now stored in cloud storage services such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

The fact is, whether you are an individual, a small business, or a large multinational corporation, you rely on computer systems every day. Couple this with the rise of cloud services, poorcloud service security, smartphones andInternet of Things (IoT)and we have countless potential securityvulnerabilitieswhich did not exist a few decades ago. We need to understand the difference betweencyber security and information security, although the skill sets are becoming increasingly similar.

Governments around the world are paying more attention to cybercrime. GDPR is a great example. It increased the reputational damage of data breaches by forcing all organizations operating in the EU to:

• Report data breaches
• Appoint a data protection officer
• Requiring user consent for data processing
• Anonymize data for privacy

The trend towards public disclosure is not limited to Europe. Although there are no national laws governing data breach disclosure in the United States, there are data breach laws in all 50 states. Common characteristics include:

• Request that affected persons be notified as soon as possible
• Notify the government as soon as possible
• Pay some kind of fine

California was the first state to regulate data breach disclosure in 2003, requiring individuals or companies to notify those affected "without reasonable delay" and "immediately upon discovery." Victims can sue for up to $750, and companies can be fined up to $7,500 per victim.

This has prompted standards committees like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to issue frameworks to help organizations understand their security risks, improve cybersecurity measures, and prevent cyberattacks.

Learn why executive reporting is important in cybersecurity >

Why is cybercrime on the rise?

Information theft is the most expensive and fastest growing segment of cybercrime. Largely driven by the increasing exposure of identity data to the web via cloud services.

But that is not the only target. Industrial controls that manage power grids and other infrastructure can be disrupted or destroyed. And identity theft is not the only goal, cyber attacks can aim to compromise data integrity (destroy or alter data) to instill distrust in an organization or government.

Cyber ​​criminals are becoming more sophisticated, changing what they target, how they affect organizations and their methods of attacking different security systems.

Social engineeringremains the easiest form of cyber attack with ransomware,phishing,spywareas the easiest form of entry. Third- and fourth-party vendors that process your data and have poor cybersecurity practices are anothercommon attack vector, making ofsupplier risk managementithird party risk managementall the more important.

According to the Ninth Annual Cybercrime Cost Study by Accenture and the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of cybercrime to an organization increased by $1.4 million over the past year to $13.0 million, and the average number of data breaches increased by 11 percent at 145.Information risk managementit's never been more important.

Data breaches can include financial informationsuch as credit card numbers or bank account information,protected health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII), trade secrets, intellectual property and other purposesindustrial espionage. Other terms for data breaches include inadvertent disclosure of information, data leakage,cloud leakage, information leakage or data spillage.

Other factors driving the growth of cybercrime include:

• The distributed nature of the Internet
• The ability of cybercriminals to attack targets outside their jurisdiction makes policing extremely difficult
• Increasing profitability and ease of doing business atthe dark web
• The proliferation of mobile devices and the Internet of Things.

What is the impact of cybercrime?

There are many contributing factorsthe cost of cybercrime. Each of these factors can be attributed to a weak focus on cybersecurity best practices.

A lack of focus on cybersecurity can hurt your business in a number of ways including:

Economic costs

‍Theft of intellectual property, corporate information, disruption in trading and the cost of repairing damaged systems

Reputational cost

‍Loss of consumer confidence, loss of current and future customers to competitors and poor media coverage

Regulatory costs

‍GDPRand other data breach laws mean that your organization could suffer regulatory fines or sanctions as a result of cybercrime.

All businesses, regardless of size, need to ensure that all staff understand cybersecurity threats and how to mitigate them. This should include regular training andframework for workwhich aims to reduce the risk of data leakage or data breach.

Given the nature of cybercrime and how difficult it is to detect, it is difficult to understand the direct and indirect costs of many security breaches. That's not to say that the reputational damage from even a small data breach or other security event isn't huge. If anything, consumers expect increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity measures as time goes on.

Learn more about regulatory risk >

How to protect your organization from cybercrime

There are simple steps you can take to increase security and reduce the risk of cybercrime:

Educate the staff

The cause was human error90% of data breaches in 2019. However, there is a silver lining to this worrying statistic. If staff are taught how to recognize and properly respond to cyber threats, most data breach incidents could be avoided. Such educational programs could also increase the value of any investment in cybersecurity solutions by preventing staff from unwittingly bypassing costly security controls to enable cybercrime.

The following resources can be used for cyber threat training in the workplace:

• What is a cyber threat?
• What is a data breach?
• What is social engineering?
• What are phishing attacks?
• What is clickjacking?
• What is typosquatting?
• What is a DDoS attack?
• What is Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS)?
• What is Threat Intelligence?

Learn how to use ChatGPT to implement phishing resistance training in the workplace >

Protect your sensitive data

Invest in tools that limit information loss, monitor yoursthird party riski4th party supplier risk, and continuously scan for data exposure and credential leaks.Data leak, if left unattended, can help cybercriminals gain access to internal networks and break into sensitive resources. It is important to implement a data leakage detection solution that is also capable of monitoring leaks in a third-party network.

Nearly 60% of data breaches occur through compromised third-party vendors, so by stopping vendor data leaks, most data breach incidents can be avoided.

Learn how to use ChatGPT to improve your security posture >

Implement a third-party risk management (TPRM) solution.

Use cost-cutting technology like automated shippingsupplier evaluation questionnairesas part of the wholecyber security risk assessmentstrategy

Businesses should no longer be asking why cybersecurity is important, but how can I ensure my organization's cybersecurity practices are sufficient to comply with GDPR and other regulations and protect my business from sophisticated cyberattacks.

There are alsopractical strategiesactions you can take to reduce cybersecurity risk for your organization.

Examples of damages to companies affected by cyber attacks and data breaches

The amount of cyber attacks and data breaches in recent years is incredible and it's easy to make a list of known companies that have been affected.

Here are just a few examples. For a complete list, see oursthe biggest data breaches post.

Equifax

‍The Equifax cybercriminal identity theft event affected approximately 145.5 million consumers in the US along with 400,000-44 million residents of Britain and 19,000 residents of Canada. Equifax shares fell 13% in early trading the day after the breach and numerous lawsuits were filed against Equifax as a result of the breach. Not to mention the reputational damage Equifax suffered. On July 22, 2019, Equifax agreed to a settlement with the FTC that included a $300 million victim compensation fund, $175 million for the states and territories in the settlement, and $100 million in penalties.

Learn how to comply with the FTCSafeguards policy >

eBay

‍Between February and March 2014, eBay was the victim of a breachencrypted passwords, resulting in all of its 145 million users being asked to reset their passwords. Attackers used a small set of employee credentials to access this trove of user data. The stolen information included encrypted passwords and other personal information, including names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth. The breach was discovered in May 2014, following a month-long investigation by eBay.

Finder for adult friends

‍In October 2016, hackers collected 20 years of data on six databases that included names, email addresses and passwords for the FriendFinder network. The FriendFinder network includes websites such as Adult Friend Finder, Penthouse.com, Cams.com, iCams.com and Stripshow.com. Most of the passwords were protected only by the weak SHA-1 hashing algorithm, which meant that 99% of them had been cracked by the time LeakedSource.com published its analysis of the entire data set on November 14.

Yahoo

‍Yahoo revealed that a breach in August 2013 by a group of hackers compromised one billion accounts. In this case, security questions and answers were also compromised, increasing the risk of identity theft. The breach was first reported by Yahoo on December 14, 2016, and forced all affected users to change their passwords and re-enter all unencrypted security questions and answers so that they would be encrypted in the future. However, by October 2017, Yahoo changed its estimate to 3 billion user accounts. The investigation determined that clear text user passwords, payment card information and bank details were not stolen. Nevertheless, this remains one of the largest data breaches of its kind in history.

While these are a few examples of high-profile data breaches, it's important to remember that there are even more that never made the headlines.

Is your company at risk of a data breach?

UpGuard canprotect your business from data breachesand strengthen network security through continuous monitoringsecurity posture of all your suppliers.

UpGuard also offers third-party data breach protection that can be outsourced to a team of cybersecurity experts to facilitate rapid scaling of the security program.

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Cybersecurity FAQs

Why is cyber security so important?

Cybersecurity protects sensitive data, such as customer information and trade secrets, from unauthorized access and concealment. Implementing a cybersecurity program is also a mandatory requirement of many data privacy regulations and laws.

Why is cybersecurity important in healthcare?

Implementing cybersecurity controls will protect patient data from compromise and support compliance with mandatory healthcare regulations such as HIPAA.

What are the main benefits of investing in cyber security?

• Your business is protected from potentially catastrophic disruptions caused by cyberattacks.
• You reduce the risk of mandatory security breaches.
• The risk of data breach is significantly reduced.
• The impact of third-party breaches resulting from supply chain attacks is significantly reduced.