Cybersecurity threats continue to increase in prevalence, severity and sophistication. The evolving nature of cybersecurity, coupled with changing regulations, give rise to misunderstandings, challenges and sometimes security myths.
The following article dispels common cybersecurity myths to enhance your team's cybersecurity intelligence and help improve your firm's overall security posture.
"Creating a cybersecurity program is enough"
To efficiently protect your company from cyber-attacks, it’s crucial that your organization not only create a Cybersecurity Program but implement it company-wide. Furthermore, you should perform a full vulnerability examination of your entire IT infrastructure regularly. Continuous scanning enables you to detect vulnerabilities faster, reducing overall exposure to risk.
Align Risk CSR (Continuous Scanning and Reporting), for example, provides a holistic view of your environment, with continuous vulnerability reporting tools to aggregate data, analyze threats and allow you to mitigate risks to your organization. With Align's proprietary risk algorithm you can determine how your company’s risk compares with global industry risk, computed in real-time.
"We can't outsmart a hacker"
Another common myth is that the sheer intelligence of hackers deems them unstoppable. All cybercriminals are not necessarily masterminds.
Instead, they have merely learned how to propagate malware or use Malware-as-a-Service to launch attacks effectively. Users that applied the scripts written by other people were often referred to as “script kiddies,” who rely on packaged exploits and malware services to launch attacks.
On the other hand, some criminals examine employee security habits, perform various tests and identify weaknesses to leverage for conducting a successful breach.
"IT will fix it," or "it's an IT problem"
Contrary to popular misconception, cybersecurity is not just the concern of your IT department. Today's cybersecurity attacks are intelligent, evasive and polymorphic.
To adequately safeguard your firm from hackers and cybercriminals, it takes a concerted effort company-wide, across typically dislocated departments and a robust, dynamic cybersecurity program.
"My company is a small business; therefore, we are not a target for hackers"
Some startups or smaller businesses make the mistake of forgoing building a cybersecurity program because they believe they are not the ideal target for criminals. In fact, a recent study from Switchfast Technologies reported that 51% of small business leaders and 35% of employees think that their business is not a target for cybercriminals.
The misconception that smaller firms aren't targets for cybercriminals opens the door to cyber-attacks. Instead of undermining hackers, firms should recognize that anyone and everyone is a target of cyber-attacks.
"Patch perfect"
Perfect patching is nearly impossible to accomplish. The majority of small and big businesses have hundreds or thousands of programs that require patching.
Even if all software and hardware have the latest security patches applied, chances are an attacker can still find a way in with a zero-day attack, in which case the attacker attempts to exploit a vulnerability before the software vendor is even aware of its existence.
"Annual employee security awareness training is sufficient"
Social engineering is involved in the majority of the malicious efforts dedicated to gaining access to company networks and data. Attackers strategically prey on their victims’ capacity to be manipulated by compelling subject lines or innocuous looking documents.
Training employees once a year cannot adequately equip them against social engineering attacks. However, regular phishing exams, testing and retraining can prepare employees to recognize and help prevent attacks.
Making an effort to reassess your cybersecurity program and reevaluate defense strategies can significantly mitigate risks posed to company data and assets. Furthermore, empowering employees with cybersecurity knowledge and best practices will better equip them to help safeguard your business from attacks.
Align Cybersecurity provides regulatory compliant, secure and comprehensive cybersecurity solutions. To speak with an Align Cybersecurity expert, click here or the button below.
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