There are many types of digital threats in the world today. Just to scrape the surface here are a few of them.
- Phishing
- Ransomware
- Natural Disasters
- Cloud Storage Applications
- Employee Data Security Breach
Phishing is a scam where a malicious actor pretends to be someone they are not and by doing so request information that when given, could hurt your business and/or your clients. If an employee were to mistake this malicious actor as who they are pretending to be and gave them company information this person could either have access to client information and hurt our client and then hurting our reputation. Or they could use our information and mess with financial aspects of the business. Ransomware is when you get a virus that states it can only be removed by paying a ransom. If an employee were to open a suspicious email and contract a virus it is possible that this could end up as ransomware.
Though natural disasters are not necessarily digital threats, they can cause a digital threat. If procedures are not in place to back up data safely if power is to go out or if computers are damaged, then a natural disaster can cause a huge destruction to your work and digital information.
With the cloud being such a convenient way to store data with an “out of sight, out of mind” kind of idea it can be easy to let the security of your data stored in the cloud become threatened by cybercriminals.
Sometimes intentional, sometimes not, an employee with access to the business’ data can pose a threat by either unconsciously opening the wrong email or by selling data after a loss of employment.
A few digital systems that our business has in place would be:
- Email
- Data Storage
- Credit/Debit Card Information
- Customer Information
- Vendor Information
These functions could all be subject to breach which would be bad for the business, the customers, and the vendor. Email in a company is always subject to data breach whether it be through employees opening malicious emails or answering emails without encrypting secure information. This could also become a threat if the password doesn’t have a regular span of time in which it needs changed or a requirement for the structure of a password.
If customer or vendor information is not secured with proper passwords and either selective access or dual control this information can become easily accessible which puts your clients and vendors at risk, and this will most definitely hurt your business’s reputation.
Along with customer information it is important to keep credit/debit card processes up to date in order to further help protect this aspect of your business.
Data storage can be a tricky process. Needing to make sure that where or how you store and back up your data is secure. It is important to update anything necessary to keep the security of your stored data. Using a reliable source to store data is also very important for security. It might cost the business’s more up front, but it could safe from security problems especially as the business grows.
As chief technology executive I would recommend taking precautions to keep our security in good standings.
- Put in place training for employees on email security and how to recognize phishing and other types of malicious emails.
- In order to protect data from natural disasters or other related incidences I would suggest that there be regularly timed backups to save data and a system in place to secure data during power outages.
- It is recommended that as many processes as possible have automatic updates in place and those that cannot be automatically updated have a systematic evaulation of when they need updated allowing those updates to be noticed and executed as quickly as possible.
- In the event that an employee is terminated or chooses to no longer work with the business their access to all records and data should immediately be blocked
- Our business should use a reliable and strongly secure cloud application for storage with regular updates and this information should be separated into levels of information that allows access to only those that is necessary to do their part in the business.
Keeping our business secure is an ever-changing task. It calls for much training and continuous effort to stay on top of what malicious actors are working on next as wells as being aware of our own shortcomings and being able to find ways to educate and change these issues.
https://guardiandigital.com/blog/2020-a-new-decade-of-digital-threats-is-your-business-email-secure
https://www.vcsolutions.com/blog/the-top-5-digital-security-threats-to-business/