In this ever-evolving digital world, we hear about cybercrime so often that news of such incidents can quickly turn into white noise. As a business owner, it’s easy to believe myths about the security of your digital network and that data that you harbor. Regretfully, many are finding out the hard way that some beliefs they hold about cybersecurity are downright false. Here are five myths that need to be debunked.
1. The data we have isn’t worth anything.
So, you collect data on your clients, but is it worth anything? Some may believe that the data their business is collecting on their clients isn’t worth anything because it doesn’t include highly sensitive information like date of birth or Social Security number. In fact, any data that you collect on your clients has a price associated with it, including their expressed preference of how they like their coffee. Any data collected can be compiled with other information found on the dark web to compose a completed and accurate profile on a person. Therefore, seemingly menial data should be treated as what it truly is – valuable information that needs to be protected.
2. We have security software, so we are protected.
Most business owners assume that security software can service as an invisible barrier protecting their data from being hacked. Well, even three major antivirus providers have been hacked recently, so that should highlight how much security software alone can do to protect you. What can you do to safeguard yourself more? Keep your security software and operating systems up to date as many updates are to patch security vulnerabilities.
3. Phishing scams are easy to detect.
Phishing scams are getting more complex as hackers worm their way into businesses, CEOs’ personal accounts, and even into government agencies. Business owners and their employees are realizing that it’s not just unfamiliar email addresses that are reaching out via email to entice you to click a link or to open an attachment. Often, these attacks are coming from what seems like internal accounts. They do their due diligence and use familiar names against you because you won’t hesitate to open something from a known person. No matter what, it’s essential to keep a keen eye on the sender. For example one letter might be off in the email address which will hint to a phishing attempt. But they’re not always easy to spot.
4. There’s nothing left to protect with the increase of data breaches.
There’s no denying that companies are losing their customers’ data left and right. We hear about these calamities in the news all too often. But you need to be aware that there are various forms of data breaches that can have different impacts. For starters, if you lost your customer’s username and password to a hacker, this might be the only account that is be breached. On the other hand, a data breach would have a much greater impact if a hacker got ahold of your customer’s date of birth and Social Security number. The effects would be everlasting and more devastating. Like we’ve said previously, all data is valuable and to think that because other companies have lost their customers’ data that if you lose their data too, it won’t matter… that mindset is true malfeasance. Do your part by protecting all of the data you collect on your customers.
5. Our employees only go to mainstream websites, so we don’t need extra protection.
As long as your company’s devices are connected to the internet, you need some type of security software to make it more difficult for an attack on your company to be successful. Websites, especially social media sites, are selling the data they collect. The more cookies your employees have on their devices, the easier it is to follow those employees’ every move on the internet. No matter what types of websites your employees are going to, make sure that they take steps to secure themselves by using an up-to-date security software and that they regularly delete the cookies on their computer.
LibertyID is the leader in identity theft restoration, having restored the identities of tens of thousands of individuals without fail. If you retain personal information on your customers, now is the time to get data breach planning and a response program in place with our LibertyID for Small Business data breach preparation program. With LibertyID Enterprise you can now add value to existing products, services, or relationships by covering your customers, employees, or members with LibertyID’s fully managed identity theft restoration service—at a fraction of our retail price—with no enrollment and no file sharing. We have no direct communication with your group members–until they need us.
Call us now for a no obligation proposal at 844-411-LIBERTY (844-411-5423).