A data breach is a revenue-killing monster that no business wants to deal with. The cost of that nightmare starts right away and doesn’t stop until the last piece of remediation is done. Risk of a data breach is rising in many industries, especially when it comes to cloud data breaches, which will rise more than 35% in 2021. When your data breach is linked to someone else’s, it can be hard to pin down the source of the problem, and it can come from all over the place. Particularly when your data breach is linked to someone else’s, there will be a lot of money that your company will have to pay out in the beginning, but it won’t be the only thing. The unexpected costs of a data breach can come back to haunt you years later, and it might even be enough to bring your business to its knees and close it down.

Over the last few months, we’ve been compiling a list of some of the most frequently asked questions in order to provide an example of what the average business might encounter. However, despite the wide range in the size, nature, and possibility of an attack on a given system, cyber security is a matter that everyone should take seriously. Yet only a small number of businesses are concerned about this issue.

Are Data Breaches Inevetable ?

You would imagine that organizations aren’t prepared for data breaches because of financial restraints, but the truth appears to be that they aren’t prepared because they are ignorant. It was estimated that over half (52 percent) of respondents believed it was improbable that their organization would be compromised, and with about 6 percent were sure that it would never happen to them. Well, they are completely wrong. Every organization is prone to cyber because cyber criminals are more probably interested in exploiting vulnerabilities rather than specific organizations. There is no organization that is too small to be targeted, and threats evolve at such a rapid pace that defenses are unavoidably weakened as a result.

People inside the company can be malicious, you can have the best defenses in the world to keep cyber attackers away, but there’s always the chance that someone in your company will get hold of or lose important documents. Moreover, about 56% of people use the same password for everything making it easier for hackers to get all your accounts at one time. Another common way to get someone to click on a malicious link or ad is to send them an email that looks real but is actually a spam. This way, malware can be put on their computer.

As a result, a breach is inevitable — which makes cyber security even more critical. Effective defenses can help you avoid most attacks and prepare you for situations where you have no choice.

What it take to get breached

The Money

A single data breach costs a lot more money than it has ever cost before. There is a report from IBM and Ponemon called the Cost of a Data Breach. It states that the average cost of a breach in 2021 is expected to be $4.2 million per incident, which is higher than any figure in the last seventeen years. The global COVID-19 pandemic also made it more difficult to figure out the costs of a data breach, when companies mentioned that most of their employees were working from home, results showed a rise of up to $1 million more in data breach.

The Reputation

In the past, if your company had a data breach, it wasn’t very bad for your reputation unless it was very bad and sometimes even then. LinkedIn and other companies that have had huge data breaches haven’t faded away because of them. In the last few years, people have become more aware of the risks of having their personal information stolen. Nearly two out of three people would probably not do business with a company that had been hacked over the last year.

The Clients

An attack on one of your business partners or clients could also be caused by an attack at your own data. Cybercrime has a common theme: attacking a smaller company that may not have strong security in order to get into a bigger company for a bigger cyber attack. This has been very effective. Two-thirds of breaches happen because of third-party or supplier flaws, which make businesses much pickier about who they work with and what they do.

Legal Penalties

When the European Union implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with fines of up to 4% of annual revenue, it introduced some of the harshest penalties for a breach of data protection laws anywhere in the world. In doing this, the Data Protection Authorities created tremendous leverage to gain compliance with the regulations, ensure consent is received from data subjects and to reduce the likelihood of personal data violation.

However, despite these threats, there have still been some record-breaking GDPR fines issued to high-profile organizations, an indication that some are always prepared to take risks with regards to the data processing of client information.

Few Tips to protect Yourself

• Teach your employees Mistakes made by human resources are a key cause of data breaches. Data breaches can happen because of staff’s mistakes and can have a devastating effect on every element of your business. As a result, it is vital that your employees be properly trained and educated so that they can avoid making these mistakes at all times.

• You can also choose perimeter security to guard against attackers, scammers, and unexpected visitors. To protect a private network, it should have perimeter security.

• It’s also critical to detect unprotected assets that are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. It helps you to build your resources and liabilities by prioritizing them. Also, make sure your cloud services and web pages are properly protected. Use specialized technologies built to safeguard assets.

• Keeps password in a safe place. Avoid making it simple for intruders to gain access to passwords.

• However, technology cannot always remedy everything. So, you need a skilled security staff of qualified technologists at all times.

• You should always have a plan B. What will you do next if a data breach occurs? How will you rebuild customer trust? Is it possible to avoid it? For these matters always be prepared for a backup plan.

Conclusion:

What are the takeaways from these occurrences? For starters, both small and big businesses and corporations must increase their security vigilance and be more effective defenders. Cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their deception. Organizations must improve their ability to detect risks and assaults at early stage and intervene as soon as possible in order to reduce the amount of damage inflicted. The good news is that a research indicates that organizations’ understanding of cyber security is growing. This is encouraging. A third of respondents acknowledged that cyber-attacks were unavoidable and stated that they intended to take more steps to prevent breaches in the future.

About us

Snapsec is a team of security experts specialized in providing pentesting and other security services to secure your online assets. We have a specialized testing methodology which ensures indepth testing of your business logic and other latest vulnerabilities.

If you are looking for a team which values your security and ensures that you are fully secure against online security threats, feel free to get in touch with us #support@snapsec.co