The simple answer is yes. It seems that everyone is a potential target these days. Recently, even a major health insurance provider announced that they had been breached. Clearly, they lacked appropriate cyber attack protection. I would know, I am one of the 78.8 million people who got the letters in the mail. What were they saying? That they are doing everything they possibly can to ensure that my information is being protected. Great, now I get to join the countless people who suffer a successful cyber attack!
You may ask yourself: why me?
I know I have asked myself that before. As a 30-something
year old with half-way decent credit, who owns a house, has over $30k in
student loans, and enough credit card debit to fund a small nation… Why would
they want my information?
It’s simple really: guilt by association. It may not be your
information they are gunning for. It may be the guy next to you in the alphabet
who has a mansion and six yachts. Either way, there you are sitting in the
cyber Rolodex next to a gazillionaire!
In a recent article I read on darkreading.com,
they outlined that 70% of organizations suffered a successful cyber attack in
the past year. Security professionals aren’t exactly very optimistic about the
next year either, saying 52% believe their organization will be targeted in the
next year. How is it that there is no real confidence in stopping hackers?
Most believe it is correlated with the reality that hacking
is big business now. It’s no longer just
for those sitting in their parents’ basements or a Russian spy working for the
KGB. This is taking the thought of being hacked to a whole new level, of not so
much a “what-if” but a “when.”
This has opened a financial door. Now, companies are
devoting more money than ever in cyber attack protection and security. The
primary goal is to protect information from getting into the wrong hands.
Protecting the
Fortress
Protecting the fortress of information is now more prevalent
than ever. However, searching for the right solution can be a catch 22: does
spending more money really give you more protection? There are many instances
in life where spending more really does mean better quality. It doesn’t always
work like that. Sometimes, more money is
not worth it in the end. When it comes to protecting your data, doing your
homework can pay off in many ways.
As many ways as there are to break into a company, there are
at least as many ways to protect that company’s data.
A great place to begin when planning for cyber attack
protection is to either enforce a stronger password policy, or require a second
factor to your login portal. Both of these forms of stronger authentication can
be affordable for businesses of any size through providers like PortalGuard, who
do not charge per-user or per-application.
Stronger password policies are a great way to accomplish a
solid front door. Requiring a password character length along with a special
characters, numbers and capitalized letters is a great start. However, taking
it a step further and ensuring that the end-user is not using an obvious phrase
like their name or birthdate is imperative when designing a password policy.
Two-factor authentication is another great way to protect
the front door. Unfortunately, this can sometimes be seen as a hindrance from
the perspective of the end user. There are many forms of two-factor
authentication on the market, which means you do have a variety of options to
choose from. The most common two-factor, one-time password delivery methods
include hard tokens, voice messaging, and SMS text messaging.
No matter which route you choose to protect your information
it is important that you are proactive and not reactive. Being caught with
little to no cyber attack protection after suffering from a successful breach
is not a good look. When was the last time you heard someone regretting having
too much protection in the face of a disaster?
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