Cyber attackers are always lingering at the back of business owners’ minds these days, as the headlines are filled with reports of data breaches and companies paying massive ransoms to recover their valuable information. Making sure your network security is up to par in 2021 is one resolution you want to keep.
Amnet, a top rated cybersecurity company serving the Colorado Springs and Denver local areas, delved into the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2020 to make sure you know the key IT solutions to help your organization stay secure in the new year.
Verizon’s Cybersecurity Breaches Takeaways
1. Who is breaching your network security?
Although visions of foreign hackers hooded in mystery abound when we think of cyberattacks, the fact is most cybercrime is surprisingly simple and – not surprisingly – motivated by money. To avoid detection, most cybercriminals choose the least noticeable ways of entering your network.
Typically, hackers shoot for the easiest targets – people – by taking advantage of our trusting natures. Here’s a breakdown of who is responsible for breaches:
- 70% by external actors
- 55% by organized crime
- 30% involved internal actors
2. IT solutions alone won’t save you
Over 20% of breaches are caused by human error. From email phishing fails to network security configuration mistakes, people are the easiest target for hackers and the most likely fail in your system. Meaning: technology alone cannot protect you.
Cybersecurity solutions need to include a component that trains your employees to be vigilant about keeping network security best practices.
3. Beat the top breaches
You’re probably starting to notice a theme here: Your employees are your first line of defense against cybercrime because they are the primary target of hackers, mainly via email systems. Emails carry information, attached data and personally identifying information that leads bad actors straight to your company’s network. Email security training, along with antivirus, firewalls and cloud computing, can close this door to your company in-boxes.
Once access is gained via email, cybercriminals go to work leveraging the end user’s corporate access to move across your network, looking for information that can lead to money.
4. Cybersecurity and the cloud
Cloud infrastructure has significant benefits to organizations, especially those with remote workers. And, although cloud networks offer better security controls than some on-premise networks, they still are involved in 24% of all reported breaches.
The gate to your cloud can easily be accessed if your cloud storage is public or if a user’s password is compromised. Often, the same password is used for multiple cloud apps and – voila! – the hackers are in your cloud, scrubbing it for credentials. Sensitive financial, employee and customer information is easy to download and sell to the highest bidder on the Dark Web.
Cybersecurity for Colorado Businesses
- Anyone can be a cyber victim
Size doesn’t matter when it comes to cybersecurity and data breaches. The credentials your organization keeps are hackers’ top target.
- Breach recovery is getting shorter
The time to containing breaches takes fewer days now, as many companies realized their expertise doesn’t lie in cybersecurity and have partnered with top rated IT managed service providers in Colorado like Amnet.
Key Takeaways by Industry
Construction Cybersecurity Breaches
- Suffers from web app attacks & social engineering
- Boasts a low submit rate for phishing
- Exhibits low number of employee errors
Healthcare Breaches
- Suffers high number of ransomware attacks
- Lost and stolen assets remain a problem
- Human error is high
Manufacturing Cybersecurity Breaches
- Beset by external actors using stolen passwords
- Fair number of cyber-espionage attacks
- Internal employees have misused access
Professional, Scientific & Technical Services Breaches
- Stolen credentials leverage web applications
- Social engineering commonly used against
- Suffers regularly from Denial of Service attacks
Amnet’s Cybersecurity Breaches Solutions
We can help create the pieces you need for a sound IT plan. Give us the pieces your internal team does not have the time, talent or resources to address, or we can do it all for you. Call us for a IT plan audit. Let’s talk!