Infographic: Cybersecurity is No Longer Optional – Plan to Prevent Threats
The September 2017 Equifax breach impacted more than 143 million business and individuals. The information compromised included names, addresses, social security numbers and any active credit disputes.
In the article Equifax Forgets the Facts of Cybersec, Firestorm discussed six key points that business and individuals should understand about the breach, including:
- The Equifax initial statement
- The original TOU for services for credit monitoring included a waiver of right-to-sue, or to be included in a future class-action suit against Equifax
- Three officers’ insider transactions
- Revictimization issues
- Repercussions
- Preferred provider status
The article can be read in full here.
The Equifax breach may be one of the most impactful breaches to date, but it was not the first cybersecurity issue, nor will it be the last.
Download the infographic: Cybersecurity is no longer optional – Plan to Prevent Threats
Cybersec is no longer ‘optional.’
A cyber breach will impact an organization on many levels, including human, operational, reputational and financial. Large, small, public and private organizations are at risk. Today, 65 percent of all businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees have been hacked. The chance of a breach striking an organization increases every day.
Firestorm recently conducted a survey and asked business participants what crisis event would be the number one concern for their organization. A cyber attack topped the charts with 28 percent. Additionally, 58 percent stated they were not sure information can be contained during a crisis.
Impacts of a security breach are tangible. Effects include:
- Impacts on the organization’s brand image.
- Impacts on the relationship with the customers.
- Impacts of the cyber breach on the customer.
- Media and public reaction to the incident.
- Economic impacts of the organization and its clients either direction due to complaints or indirectly through loss of brand image or civil action.
Cyber breaches occur, and often. While they can’t be scheduled, they can be predicted and planned. Follow these four steps and coach your employees on how to mitigate the impacts an attack can have on your organization:
- Update your systems
- Keep all company systems up-to-date with the latest versions of all software and remove anything you are no longer using.
- Require authentication measures
- Don’t use the same password for every login credential. Ensure all employees use a combination of capital and lower-case letters, numbers and special characters.
- Offer extensive training
- Offer regular training in how to spot fraudulent messages, back up data and follow security procedures.
- Protect your business with insurance
- Part of planning ahead is preparing for when something goes wrong. Obtain insurance coverage for cyber attacks.
The corresponding infographic is a great resource to provide employees. It contains additional statistics regarding cyber security and how to protect your organization against attacks. Not sure where to start when creating your own plan? Contact Firestorm and we will guide you through a series of questions to identify which route your organization should take.
“What should we do now?” “What should we say?”