Have you heard about information security and how it applies to your business?
Like the name implies, information security involves the methodologies and processes that help protect your company’s stored data. From limiting access, unlawful usage, disclosure, and destruction to this data, your business ensures that it never falls into unintended hands.
Unfortunately, cybercriminals have exploited businesses that do not have a sufficient level of cybersecurity and preventative policies in place. The results of a successful cyberattack are often disastrous.
Let’s take a brief look at what information security means for your business and what you can do to ensure the highest levels of securing the future of your business.
What is information security?
For businesses, information security is a crucial aspect of running your organization. With data being an important part of running your business in our modern digital environment, it’s the responsibility of businesses to protect sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands.
Why does information security matter?
Unfortunately, sophisticated cyber criminals have a host of tools and techniques to compromise your data – which are getting more complex and harder to counteract daily. These methods include ransomware, malware, and phishing scams, each with the capability of shutting down your business, costing enormous sums of money to remedy, and opening all sorts of liability issues.
To give you an idea of how important information security is, take a look at the following statistics:
- Ransomware cost businesses around the world $20 billion in 2021.
- In 2021, nearly 40% of all businesses and organizations were hit by ransomware, costin an average of $1.85 million per attack.
- In 2021, organizations experienced malware attacks that spread from one employee to another number rose to 74%, up from 61% in 2020.
- 75% of organizations around the world experienced a phishing attack in 2020, with 74% of these phishing attacks targeting US businesses were successful.
Here’s a brief description of these types of cyberattacks:
- Ransomware holds access to your data until a transaction is paid to the criminals.
- Malware is any software that intentionally disrupts your business’ digital operations, such as leaking private information, depriving access to information, or unknowingly compromises computer security and privacy.
- Phishing is a type of social engineering attack, typically through email, that tricks human users into revealing sensitive information or deploying malicious software on the victim’s infrastructure.
The results of any successful cyberattack on your business can lead to:
- Business disruption
- Lost revenue
- Reputational damage
- Increased costs for adequate data security
- Stolen intellectual property
- Liability issues from vendors, customers, clients, staff, and others
- And more
In healthcare, for example, information security is mandatory via HIPAA guidelines. Failure to adhere to these information security guidelines – intentional or unintentional – may result in fines, business shutdown, and even criminal charges.
How Can You Guarantee Information Security for Your Business?
Now that you’re up to speed on the growing risks and threats that come from compromised information security, what can a business do?
There are several solutions:
- Provided comprehensive training to all employees and staff on appropriate security protocols to recognize and respond to cyberattacks
- Utilizing up-to-date security software on all networks, databases, and connected devices
- Frequently change passwords and login information
- Use multi-factor authentication for
- Control access to data for only necessary personnel
- Perform routine security assessments
- Hiring security experts to optimize
For each of these aspects of information security and your valuable data, partnering with Root Port IT is the right decision for the future of your business. Root Port IT offers the following solutions for your business:
- Protect your networks by using top-of-the-line security software
- Comprehensive security assessments
- Automated network monitoring for unauthorized access
- Automatic updates on all connected devices for critical protection against security threats
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all accounts, requiring two or more credentials to log in with passwords, security keys, biometrics, and more.
- Creating protocols and training modules to educate staff on identifying phishing attacks
- Comprehensive backup solutions, including cloud storage, on-site servers, and hybrid solutions
- And more
Contact Root Port IT today to learn more about how we can protect your business and give you the peace of mind to do what you do best.
