Protecting Your Organisations Data

How much is your data worth and can you protect it?

Data is a valuable currency and the ultimate goal for cybercriminals.

Protecting your valuable data

Data is a valuable currency and the ultimate goal for cybercriminals. If you own an organisation’s data and intellectual property, you can bring the business to its knees. By breaching the company’s defences and locking up its data, cybercriminals can exploit businesses for a hefty ransom to retrieve their data and avoid the financial and reputational damage that goes along with being breached.

It’s not only businesses that are at risk of financial exploitation. An individual employee’s identity alone is valued at around US$1,200[1]. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg considering that a successful cyberattack could result in:

  • Appropriation of resources: cybercriminals often use vulnerabilities in the network to infiltrate systems and use information that can be repurposed to create things of value, such as scams. By co-opting organisational data, such as internal email signatures, cyberattackers can create phishing emails to exploit other victims using your organisation as a proxy.
  • Clients and suppliers transferring funds to bogus accounts: phishing and spear phishing attacks can exploit your email information to expose your customers to vulnerabilities. This can lead to customers sharing details and finances with cybercriminals using fake accounts and posing as employees of your company.
  • Impact to financial credentials: cybercriminals can access company credit cards and bank accounts, which can cause financial losses and damage.
  • Theft of intellectual property: cyberattackers that infiltrate your system or deploy ransomware can access sensitive data and information from within your organisation. This can be used to blackmail your organisation, or be sold through the black market, for monetary gain.
  • Ransom demands: armed with sensitive company and customer information, cybercriminals can further exploit organisations by requesting payment for the return of locked up data.
  • Company information used for unlawful purposes: in addition to financial exploitation, criminals can also exploit confidential information for other means, such as corporate espionage. This can involve company secrets or intellectual property being sold to other competing organisations or used for other illegal activities such as fraud.

It’s essential that organisations invest wisely in tools and technologies to keep their valuable information safe from cybercriminals. To protect company information, organisations must integrate processes like advanced email threat protection, multifactor authentication and employee cybersecurity training into their operations. They should also invest in network security tools, such as perimeter security, to provide the best defence possible for the network. However, there is a fine balance between investing in the right level of protection for your organisation, and over-investing in solutions that may not deliver the best security advantage for your business.

Cyclone has identified four key capabilities your cybersecurity solution must deliver to best protect your organisation and its valuable information in our latest checklist. For more information, download your copy today or contact the Cyclone expert team for a personalised consultation on how best to protect your organisation

[1] https://www.top10vpn.com/research/investigations/dark-web-market-price-index-2019-us-edition/

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