5 Shocking Truths About Cybersecurity You Should Know

5 Cybersecurity Facts You Should Know

Cybercrime is a real and credible threat to your business.

Before the boom of the Internet, hackers overtook systems and breached databases for fun and fame. However, cyber criminals discovered that hacking and malware engineering are profitable businesses. Experts estimate that cybercrime costs 6 trillion dollars per year.

The National Small Business Association shares that a single cyber attack can drain as much as $32,000 to $87,000 from a business. Small businesses which suffer from such a hack or a breach close after a year.

Being lax about security will cost you.

It’s no longer practical to be mum about cybersecurity especially if it will cost your brand its reputation aside from finances. One of the worst breaches in Ukraine involved office software M.E.Docs. Hackers successfully launched ransomware through M.E.Docs servers. All of this could have been avoided if the IT team installed updates on their server software. Their last update was in 2013.

It’s these little mistakes which allow hackers and cybercriminals the leeway they need to invade systems and steal data. One small slip in terms of security can be fatal. That’s why you need to invest in cybersecurity solutions in order to protect your network.

Mobile devices can serve as backdoors to hackers.

Although mobile security is improving, both the Android and iOS systems host a myriad of vulnerabilities. What seems to be a harmless app on your mobile phone can actually serve as a backdoor to hackers once they infect the servers hosting these apps. And as the recent scandal regarding Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, even the most innocuous app, like a Farming sim, can actually harvest a large amount of personal information from the platform’s users.

You need to scrutinize your service providers.

It’s no longer enough to just browse a potential hosting service provider’s website, you need to do due diligence and find out how ironclad their cybersecurity protections are. Again coming back to the M.E. Docs hack which saw hundreds of computers in Ukraine get infected with ransomware, laxity in terms of cybersecurity is fatal to a business. Not all service providers are equal. Make sure the one you’re hiring has your back and is constantly preparing for an attack.

Hackers and malware engineers invent new hacks and malware every moment.

The AV Test Institute, an international and independent malware research organization, detects around 250,000 new malware strains every single day. In 2016 and 2017 alone, their threat lab collected 147 million and 122 million new malware. As you can see with these statistics, hackers are busy and so should you and your cybersecurity team.

Cybersecurity is no longer a luxury. If you own a business, you need to start using cybersecurity protocols and investing in security solutions stat. It is true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In this case, one single update can save your business. A missed one will sink your business.