Study Confirms that Over 75% of Organizations are Vulnerable to Hackers

How does your business handle threats to its data security? You might think you’re safe, but according to the Ponemon Institute, nearly four out of every five organizations aren’t prepared to fend off threats to their security. This is a major problem, so it should make you question whether you’re prepared to handle the various security risks that could potentially plague your business.

Some organizations have cyber threat intelligence for specific reasons, or one that’s exclusive to only one part of a company’s network. More than one-third of organizations have no way of gathering intelligence, while close to one-fifth claim they have a process for gathering information on network threats. Either way, the results are clear; security is not the priority that it needs to be for the respondent’s businesses.

Due to this less-than-ideal focus on cyber security, the Ponemon institute claims that businesses experience an average of at least one cyber attack every month. These breaches result in costs totaling over $3.5 million annually. You need to assess your organization’s current state of security and consider whether you can afford to suffer from a data breach.

Hint: You can’t.

One of the most dangerous ways that hackers try to harm organizations is through the use of phishing scams. These attempts to convince users to part ways with sensitive information by using an elaborate ruse. By the end of a successful phishing scheme, the hacker will have all of the information they need to access a sensitive network, compromise an online account, or steal the user’s identity. If users can’t tell the difference between a hacker and a normal user, there’s an increased risk of communicating with anyone online. More often than not, hackers are allowed to have their way specifically because organizations either don’t take the threat of a hacking attack seriously enough, or they just accidentally let a threat through their defenses.

The easy solution to this problem can be implemented by any business professional. All you have to do is keep two major points in mind: 1) Implement preventative measures, and 2) Educate your employees on security threats.

• Preventative measures: When we talk about security measures, we mean the basic ones like firewalls and antivirus solutions. These are designed to protect your organization from threats in the first place, so that you don’t have to suffer from an unexpected data breach. In other words, by cutting your organization’s exposure to threats, you enhance your business’s cyber security.
• Employee education: If your business wants to take the fight to cybersecurity threats, your employees need to know what to avoid and why. Show your employees what phishing scams look like, and what to do about them. By doing so, you’ll be making security a part of your organization’s culture, which is crucial to keeping your data safe.

If your business is concerned about cybersecurity, k_Street Consulting, LLC can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (202) 640-2737.