Top 5 Reasons for Cyber Security
What is Cyber Security?
The name cyber security as straightforward as it sounds is far more important than people usually think. Here are some of the misconceptions that even you may have:
- Only big and important companies or people will fall victim
- Anti-virus and firewall is enough
- Danger can only come from external sources
- Passwords are difficult to crack
- Once a device is infected, users will know immediately
What is cybersecurity and how to prevent cyber-attacks? Cybersecurity is the act of protecting yourself from cyber-attacks online. For cybersecurity to be successful, it has to cover multiple layers of protection spread across networks, programs, computers or data that should be kept safely. How do you make this work in your organisation?
- People – the staff has to be knowledgeable on basic security principles
- Processes – Have a good framework so that the organisation will know what to do In times of cyber attacks
- Technology – New and advancing technologies are used to protect devices
So why implement Cyber Security in your company? I will be listing the top 5 reasons why you should do it for the safety of your company.
Preventing Damage To Company
There are cyber attackers out there who are skilled enough to hack big companies who are already well invested into cybersecurity. Facebook is an example the huge social media company had more than 540,000,000 user records exposed on Amazon’s cloud computing service. Since Facebook has already invested so much in cybersecurity but still gets attacked, it must be pointless for a small company to have cyber security right?
Wrong, not all news are published but there have been cases of companies of all sizes that has been destroyed due to cyber-attacks and it is all because they do not treat cybersecurity with importance. The less invested you are into cyber security means you are prone to more attacks and it could leave much more damage as compared to other companies are more invested. Every day there are more than 4000 hacks made by ransomware alone, this should scare people or companies who think that they are safe from cyber-attacks. With 54% of the firm’s network or data being breached in 2018 it could be your turn any time and the average cost of recovering from a cyber-attack is $5,000,000, will you risk it?
Safekeep Personal Details
In most companies, the database consists of personal details of every staff working for the company. When company data is breached, the hacker has access not only to data relevant to business but the data of the people working for the company. Such data consists of bank accounts, family details, address, etc.
These data can be used as blackmail against the victim and the victim may have to pay a sum of money just to have the data back but it is never guaranteed that the attacker might not have it anymore even after receiving the payment.
Without a cyber-security, the employees, as well as the employer, are in jeopardy of getting their personal information leaked. Hence, for the safety of everyone in a company, cybersecurity should be implemented.
Stay safe from progressing hackers
As technology improves, so does the skills of hackers from all around the world. When big companies such as Facebook, Sony, and Adobe are victims of cyber-attack it shows how smart the hackers can be to get through companies with good encryption. In 2014, South Korea had also been hacked by an employee of Korea Credit Bureau who took credit card details and sold them to credit traders and telemarketing companies. (“TOP 10 of the world’s largest cyberattacks | Outpost 24 blog”, 2019)
With the progress of both Cybersecurity and the skills of hackers, it is important to have an updated and maintained cybersecurity system to reduce the chances of being attacked. With a cybersecurity system that is constantly updated, it decreases the chance of attack as the hackers will have to find a new way to attack the victim due to the updated system blocking them out and being ahead of their capabilities.
Know the different threats
There are many ways for cyber-attacks to happen, the ones that people are more aware of are phishing emails, password hacks etc. however most don’t know about ransomware. What it does is it encrypts business information and can only be unlocked after a large fee is paid. How cybersecurity helps is that a business is able to store their data in multiple places so that they are able back up the data whenever they need to.
Malicious software is constantly improving and so are software security, this is why it is important for a company to maintain their cyber security to prevent such attacks. Having the data kept safe from all the malicious software will ensure that the company does not suffer unnecessary loss of having to recover the data.
It does not require a lot of work
Employing cybersecurity is quite simple, you are able to find some companies who would do the job for you if you employ their cyber security network. They are able to check for viruses, quarantine the virus and also keep you updated on what is happening such as how many attacks, what kind of files are quarantined etc.
As long as you pay the subscription all of these will be done for you and the cost of having cybersecurity will be a lot lesser than when cyber-attacks actually happen to you.
It is evident that cybersecurity is crucial for business to operate smoothly and to reduce cost. It doesn’t take a lot for you to protect yourself from great danger, it is better to be safe than to be sorry so make the right decision or bear with the consequences.
Author: Tan Ming Rui, Aloysius
References:
Why is Cyber Security Important in 2019? – SecurityFirstCorp.com. (2019). Retrieved from https://securityfirstcorp.com/why-is-cyber-security-important/
Services, P. (2019). What Is Cybersecurity?. Retrieved from https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/what-is-cybersecurity.html
Bordoni, S. (2019). The importance of maintaining cyber security in your business. Retrieved from https://www.itproportal.com/features/the-importance-of-maintaining-cyber-security-in-your-business/
(2019). Retrieved from
https://www.quora.com/What-is-cyber-security-Why-is-it-important
Five reasons cyber security is more important than ever. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.consultancy.uk/news/18435/five-reasons-cyber-security-is-more-important-than-ever
https://www.pexels.com/search/cyber%20security/
TOP 10 of the world’s largest cyberattacks | Outpost 24 blog. (2019). Retrieved from https://outpost24.com/blog/top-10-of-the-world-biggest-cyberattacks