Taking your online business seriously can bring you major benefits. But being online increases the risks of scams and cyberattacks. "Just a simple cyberattack", you would say, but it could seriously harm your business's reputation and sources.
Check this article and see what you can do to maintain your online business safe and secure.
Strong encryption
It is crucial to secure your data for your business, public sector, and critical infrastructure. Hackers have become more, let's say, sophisticated, and they can destroy a business in the blink of an eye. The internet, as we all know, has become an essential tool to modern society. Encryption has become very useful for our everyday online tasks. Tech advances have come with advantages and disadvantages, which led businesses to new cyber threats online. The attacks towards online companies increased significantly, giving hackers more chances to take advantage of sensitive data, and other critical business information.
The Potential for Cyber Crimes Has Grown Dramatically
According to research from Deloitte, the potential for cybercrime rose over the past years, as cybercriminals found new and more efficient tactics. Not only cybercrimes are on the rise, but in the UK, cybercrime costs businesses £34 billion per year, and only £18 billion is from lost revenue. Most organizations aren't well-prepared to face such types of attacks, as it would've been better to prevent attacks in the first place.
Meanwhile, many tech developments challenge how businesses compete and operate with each other. And because digital activities continue to grow due to the digitalization of functions, cyber-attacks are also on the rise. Not all companies collect more data to become dependent on their day-to-day operations. We live in a world where cyber crimes are becoming more attractive, with businesses exposed to security risks like never before.
Understanding the rise of cyber threats and the importance of encryption
Cybersecurity is the process of protecting and recovering computer systems, devices, and other programs, from cyber-attacks online. The internet has made it possible for users to make all kinds of interconnections, which led to the significant growth of cyber-attacks.
Why is cybersecurity critical? Because it protects your data from being stolen or damaged. This includes PII (personally identifiable information), sensitive data, intellectual property, etc. Business leaders cannot solely rely on a single cybersecurity solution, like firewalls, or antivirus software, as hackers have become more competent, and their tactics are more resilient than ever. Thus, business owners should educate their staff members on how to improve privacy measures while preventing cyberattacks.
But modern hackers know how better to destroy a business, and there's not much to do to hold them back. If you find it hard to believe it, Yahoo revealed a data break in August 2013 by a group of hackers who had compromised 1 billion accounts. The breach was reported on December 14, 2016, convincing all users to change passwords, and have their security questions encrypted in the future. It remains the most significant data breach in history - with such an example of a data breach, you might wonder if your business is genuinely at risk, too?
Cybersecurity is no longer something you can ignore. Security events often affect a business, regardless of its size, and make it reputational damage. If you're still not worried about cybersecurity, you should be.
The Importance of Cybersecurity During These "Cyber Pandemic" Times
Cyberattacks are more common than ever before. Recent studies have shown that hackers attack a device every 40 seconds. Once the attack occurs, billions of people are harmed. Organizations are shut down; services are no longer available to people, and so on.
Atlanta's network was offline for almost a week due to a very harmful cyber-attack. It caused several city operations to be paused, and it ended up having a regaining cost of $17 million. Not unexpectedly, businesses suffer thousands of hacks daily, using ransomware alone. Cyber attacks happen globally, and The National Cyber Security Center warns enterprises to back up their systems. Given the examples, there are many significant reasons why it is vital to address cybersecurity threats in your business.
With the myriad threats on the internet, a VPN is sure to help you stay protected online. A virtual private network (VPN) protects your data, hides your traffic, unblocks censored content, and more. VPNs use special protocols to offer these important features, but what exactly are these protocols?
In simple terms, virtual private network protocols are commands that help VPNs function. Some protocols can make a VPN work faster and more secure. So, VPNs need these protocols in order to work securely and properly. But not all protocols are the same: depending on the type of VPN you choose, you can get different protocols.
There are several VPN protocols out there, but you must look at the popular ones and helpful for your business, such as:
● · L2TP/IPSec
● · SSTP (developed by Microsoft)
● · WireGuard
● · PPTP
● · OpenVPN
● · IKEv2/IPSec
The whole point of using a VPN is for efficiency, privacy, and security, but you shouldn't stop on that. Do plenty of good research, and take note of the VPN protocol providers before making a purchase.
Ignoring cybersecurity can damage your business in many ways, including:
● · Reputational
● · Economic
● · Regulatory
No matter their size, all businesses must be sure that all staff members understand cybersecurity risks and manage them. Regular training programs should be implemented in companies and organizations to reduce the risk of data breaches.
Protecting Your Company Against Cybercrime
It's increasingly important to increase the security of your business's data. Human error is a natural cause, and 90% of data breaches are affected by this. But this is a concerning statistic that lifts many questions. How to increase the value of cybersecurity solutions?
Protecting your sensitive data
It's crucial to invest in tools that will help you limit data loss, monitor cyberattacks and other risks online. Data outflows are frequently left unattended, so this could help cybercriminals to gain access to internal networks and access sensitive capitals. Implement a data solution capable of monitoring sensitive data.
Using technology to keep data safe is like an automatic sense for businesses. At least, it should be. Companies worldwide should no longer question the importance of cybersecurity. The number of cyberattacks increased in recent years, and it's easy to list some company names that have been compromised.
Yahoo, eBay, Equifax are just a few of the many high-profile data breaches in history that were stolen. With these examples, you might imagine how important it is to keep your business data private and remember that you might be the next target. If your business is at risk of a data breach, please be sure to strengthen your network security and continually follow the security attitude of all sellers. Notably, all companies and staff members must work together and ensure that the threats they can deal with are real, and they take the role to keep the business safe.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of sciencetimes.com
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