Protect Your Business with These Must-Have Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Solutions

A single compromised business email can expose sensitive corporate information and private customer data. Do you have the tactics, techniques, and procedures in place to mitigate a threat that is most likely impacting your organization right now?

Cybersecurity and data privacy are vital for maintaining trust, which is fundamental to a smoothly functioning economy. Securing your corporate and customer data is essential for fostering that trust.

The biggest cyber threats facing your business

Ransomware

Ransomware continues to be a major threat to businesses today. This harmful software can halt operations by encrypting data and demanding a ransom, which can be especially disastrous for smaller companies. For instance, a veterinary clinic in North Carolina was shut down for a month due to ransomware, which shows the severe impact it can have on small businesses.

While larger companies are able to recover from the reputational damage of a data breach caused by ransomware, smaller companies can’t afford such downtime. Their customers don’t have the luxury of waiting for the organization to come back online.

Imagine being unable to access your files and data – not a pretty picture! It's a nightmare for any business, but especially for the smaller ones. They often lack the resources to bounce back quickly. And ransomware doesn't just stop work – it can also damage reputations, customer trust, and shut businesses down for good.

What are the recovery options and methods for ransomware?

1. Paying the ransom: Not advised due to the uncertainty of data recovery and the potential that your payment will be used to fund criminal organizations. Even if you pay, there’s no guarantee all your data will be restored. Cyber gangs aim for smooth transactions to encourage payment, but their decryption tools often fail.
2. Restoring from backups: The best approach. To be able to restore your data, you need to make regular backups in three places: the original location, cloud storage, and a physical device. Test your backups regularly. Frequency of backups depends on your business’s risk tolerance.

Additional risks: Double dipping

Ransomware gangs might also threaten to expose or sell your stolen data if the ransom is not paid. This is known as "double dipping." To counter this, you need to have tools in place to monitor and prevent data exfiltration. After an attack, conducting a forensic analysis helps you understand the breach and what data was exposed. You need to be able to confirm what data was exposed to take care of your customers and to confirm the ransomware gang actually obtained your data. You might find this hard to believe…but criminals aren’t exactly known for their honesty. 

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Business email compromise (BEC) includes scams like CEO fraud, account hacking, fake invoices, lawyer impersonation, and data theft.

BEC is one of the most expensive and pervasive cyber-crimes out there, costing businesses to lose billions of dollars every year.

So how do you protect your company from BEC? To reduce BEC risks, protect your email accounts by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Additionally, you should use a secondary authentication method (phone call) to confirm any financial transactions or changes before acting on an email’s directive.

Important cybersecurity statistics

• 82 percent of people use the same password on multiple sites. This is a huge security risk.
• 98 percent of companies say they have security awareness programs. Yet, 90 percent of cyber-attacks are phishing-based.
• It usually takes 250 days to discover a breach from compromised credentials.
• Every month, 1.5 million new phishing websites are created.
• 60 percent of companies that suffer a ransomware attack go bankrupt within a year.
• Ransomware and BEC cause billions in losses each year.
• BEC scams use various tactics such as CEO fraud, account compromise, false invoice schemes, attorney impersonation, and data theft.

Proactive measures for data privacy and cybersecurity

You must know what measures to take and how to protect sensitive data if you want to keep your company’s data safe. Here’s what you can do to prevent cybersecurity issues from happening before they arise:

1. Data classification and flow mapping

If you don't know what you’re protecting, how can you protect it? If you don't know where your data is, how can you put the right tools in place?

Organizations must understand what data they are protecting and where it resides. Creating a data classification policy and a data flow map will pinpoint the location of sensitive data and allow your organization to secure it.

2. The importance of cybersecurity training and awareness

Regular cybersecurity training for everyone, from CEOs to interns, is essential. This employee training should happen frequently to keep cybersecurity top of mind.

Teach employees to spot signs of phishing attacks and attempts, and how to follow secure procedures, such as verifying bank account changes over the phone.

3. Investment in cybersecurity

Effective security protocols, like anti-malware and antivirus software, are critical. Upgrading to higher security versions of software (for example, Microsoft 365 S5) offers better protection.

Working with cyber insurance companies, which are getting better at managing their risk, is another important strategy. The downside of using cyber insurance is that it requires accurate documentation of your security measures. They will verify that all cybersecurity measures you claimed to have were in place before paying any claims.

4. System updates and patching

Regular updates and patching of systems are vital to defend against vulnerabilities. Remember the WannaCry virus? This ransomware attack in May 2017 exploited unpatched systems worldwide by encrypting data and demanding ransom payments. The patch for the vulnerability that the WannaCry virus exploited was distributed in March 2017. This shows why timely updates are so important.

The vast majority of viruses and ransomware take advantage of the neglect of IT organizations and our own businesses. Regular vulnerability scanning and patching can mitigate these risks effectively.

The role of AI in cybersecurity

Artificial intelligence (AI) has a dual role in cybersecurity.

On one side, cybercriminals use AI to craft sophisticated phishing attempts and deepfake videos. These technologies can create realistic yet fake content, which poses big challenges for cybersecurity. For example, deepfake videos that use images and voices from social media can be part of kidnapping schemes. The videos make it look like a victim is in distress when they are not. AI can also improve phishing emails and make them more believable and harder to spot.

On the other side, AI is a strong defense tool. It helps spot unusual data movements and flags phishing emails. AI-driven pattern recognition software can catch phishing emails and quarantine them before they reach users. This adds an extra layer of protection.

Developing a cybersecurity culture in IT staffing and engineering staffing firms

Building a solid cybersecurity culture begins with leadership. Leaders must actively engage and show their dedication to cybersecurity. Their involvement sets the tone for everyone. This is why leaders need to bring energy to cybersecurity planning and training sessions.

You also want to create a supportive environment by implementing a training program that happens often and uses a praise versus punishment system. You want to acknowledge when somebody deletes an email and not punish people because they had a bad day and clicked on something by mistake.

How do you respond and recover from an incident?

If you experience a cybersecurity incident, the first step is to call your cyber insurance company and then start analyzing the situation. Blocking internet access can halt data exfiltration and a detailed incident response plan with assigned roles and backups guarantees a swift response.

Regularly review and update your incident response plans. These plans should be accessible even if systems are compromised. That means: Print this plan and keep it close to you and your employees. As Mike Tyson famously said, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

In summary, being proactive by investing in cybersecurity measures is an essential safeguard against an evolving landscape. By implementing these strategies, all organizations can better protect their operations, clients, and employees from cyber threats