How easily the data breaches occur? 5 ways to be aware of.
Better safe than be sorry! Be prepared against data breaches. There are 5 ways for your organization to avoid data breaches.
Here is how.
1. Weak and stolen credentials
The most simplest way hackers use for data breaches is stealing passwords. Many people use predictable passwords like ‘Password1’ and ‘123456’. With them, cybercriminals don't even need to hack into a system to steal your sensitive data.
There are many tools that can help a cybercriminal to crack passwords. They run millions of popular credentials to break into your system. This requires you to have a strong password policy across the organization. Writing down a password on a piece of paper can invite insiders to steal them and share them with hackers. You never know! Using a single password in multiple accounts is another dangerous act.
2. Application vulnerabilities
Most of us tend to think that software is perfectly built. There are many vulnerabilities in software or on the environment they were built or run. Hackers discover them faster than you think. that crooks can exploit in countless ways. That’s why the organizations that maintain those programs routinely look for and address exploits before they are discovered by criminals and shared on forums before you know them.
Therefore it is essential for you to keep in touch with the software provider and patch your software promptly.
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3. Malware
Malware or popularly known as the virus is a major threat to data protection. A cybercriminal can easily buy a new or variant of malware on the dark web, and use phishing methods to infect one of your organization's computers to open a backdoor to break into your network. The malware could be a keylogger, which tracks what a user types into a machine, or ransomware, which encrypts your files and locks the system to demand payment to enable regain access.
4. Malicious insiders
The first threat to your sensitive data comes from insiders or your employees. This may sound absurd, but there are many incidents that disgruntled employees, and employees leaving the organization by stealing sensitive data for financial gain or revenge. In addition, your competitors may plant employees to steal your market strategies, intellectual properties, and trade secrets. Have a zero trust policy and screen every employee from top to bottom for threats of a data breach. When you employ people make sure to do a background check, sign a nondisclosure agreement, and disable access to systems when they leave the organization.
5. Insider error
Human errors can cause data losses. Your employees by mistake may copy an email to the wrong person by attaching a sensitive document. They may lose a laptop with sensitive data. Their kids may accidentally delete data or unknowingly infect the laptop or mobile phone with a virus that will enable a cybercriminal to break into your system. Make your staff aware of the potential risks of their mistakes and introduce controls to address vulnerabilities.
A good strategy to protect your sensitive data is to perform regular penetration testing. It is one of the most effective ways to protect your organization from data breaches. Penetration testing is a controlled form of cyber attack performed by an ethical hacker to discover security weaknesses or your information system and organization that would be exploited by a hacker.
Penetration testing helps you identify data breach vulnerabilities of your systems as well as potential ways your information could be exposed by employees. Penetrating testing is carried out on software, hardware, people, and physical security aspects to detect flaws and weaknesses of your information security.
So get started today!
Think how secure your organization is against a data breach.
Niranjan Meegammana
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