Throughout the Pandemic, awareness of how vulnerable companies were to cyberattacks reached its peak. With most of the workforce working remotely, criminals had the easiest time attacking the weakened defenses of organizations. Now that the pandemic is winding down, there may be an illusion that our data is safer, but there is no indication that cybercriminals will slow their attacks.
Phishing is one of the most popular cyberattacks and is difficult to defeat as it uses social engineering to carry out its attack. According to the renowned cybersecurity company, Proofpoint, education is the answer to this dilemma. Educating your workforce on what a phishing attack looks like can prepare them to counteract one. The number one vulnerability with phishing scams is the employees themselves. By eliminating this variable, you greatly increase the chance of foiling the attack.
Phishing isn’t the only cybersecurity problem. According to Yahoo Finance, 78% of companies lack faith in their cybersecurity measures, and 91% are increasing their cyber defense budgets. This shows that companies know the attacks are going to continue and, rather than winding down, will increase. As companies prepare to return to an in-office workforce, criminals will be looking to use that chaos as a time to increase their attacks. These attacks are not going away, and you must meet them head-on or put your data in jeopardy.
Increasingly, criminals are also becoming more sophisticated and targeting specific data they are looking to steal. To accomplish this, criminals are looking at specific files that are vulnerable to hacking. According to Varonis, only 5% of an organization’s files are properly protected. Much of this is for the convenience of the employees. Certain files are used frequently, and protecting them properly would require the workforce to use their password to access the information every time they needed it. Nevertheless, as targeted attacks continue, leaving files vulnerable is asking for your data to be stolen.
There is no industry immune from these attacks. Even the healthcare industry has found themselves needing to increase their cybersecurity budget. Becker’s Healthcare explains that more than 90% of healthcare organizations reported at least one breach in the last three years. These breaches continue to harm healthcare systems after the breach, as well. Money that could be used to improve hospital infrastructure or staff must be used to prevent cybercriminals from stealing data. While it is true that the first concern of a hospital has to be the patient, the hospital also must keep its data safe to avoid a loss of confidentiality.
Even though we have vaccines against the pandemic and many are returning to their offices, there is no sign of cyberattacks slowing. Organizations of all shapes and sizes must be careful and use due diligence to combat this threat, or risk losing valuable information.