Tackling Data Breaches: A Serious Threat to Business Security

Many a time, we hear of data breaches in various large and small organizations. Data breach is when an encrypted database on your PC or server is broken or hacked, resulting in the loss or compromise of valuable information stored within. The term “data” in this case, most often represents protected, sensitive or confidential data such as customer records that are protected by law, or require protection according to Federal regulations. As far as businesses are concerned, data breaches compromise personal information, and trade secrets, or intellectual property, among others. Businesses, therefore, need to invest more in hiring reliable tech support services in Fort Worth to get modern technical and security services and solutions.

Defining Data Breach
In most cases, data breach implies the theft of data – a malicious action by hackers, spies or fraudsters. The loss of information through a data breach is a nefarious first move in cybercrimes such as credit card fraud, identity theft, and bank fraud. In such cases, crooks target data such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, PINs, and social security numbers.

Causes of Data Breach
According to research findings presented by the Verizon Business Risk Team and the Open Security Foundation, breaches occur due to any of three factors:

  • Targeted attacks
  • Benevolent insiders
  • Malicious insiders

In many cases, breaches are caused by a mixture of the three factors. For instance, targeted attacks are often as a result of negligence by well-meaning insiders who neglect compliance with data or security policies, which then leads to data breach by malicious hackers.

Costs to Businesses
A recent report by IBM and Penomon Institute titled, “2015 Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis,” casts a gloomy picture on the state of security in business. According to the report, the average total cost of a data breach for participating companies increased by 23 percent over the past 2 years to $379 million. Businesses that suffer data breaches lose more than just confidential information. Their status or respect, productivity, and profitability can shrink in the aftermath of just a single incident.

Ways to Secure Your Business Data
Use this checklist as a reference tool to help protect your organization from data and security breaches:

  • Identify menaces by correlating application security quality with global security data.
  • Prevent data exfiltration: The willful dissemination of sensitive information from an application to third parties via general data transmission methods.
  • Proactively shield information, such as scanning all your data files for security holes.
  • Stop incursions by targeted attacks.
  • Implement an application security policy at company level.

Wrapping Up
Data security is fundamentally a business challenge in every environment. With the increasing influx of new threats and changes in regulatory requirements, organizational security needs are continually evolving. Enterprises need to stay alert and employ world-class data security solutions and experts. There is a dire need to build a strong security posture that reduces costs, while at the same time, improving service and managing risks. Businesses in Fort Worth that seek robust tech support services and PC repair services can contact our technicians for top-shelf solutions.

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