Over 100 million Capital One accounts, including 140,000 Social Security numbers and over 80,000 linked bank accounts, all recently compromised in one of the largest security breaches since 2017's Equifax breach. These days, news of a new catastrophic failure of security is all too common. For consumers, it's an unfortunate consequence of living in the information age. But for business owners, it can be devastating, and the problem is only getting worse. The FBI released their annual cybercrime report for 2018, and it revealed some eye-opening statistics. From 2017 to 2018, the costs of cybercrime almost doubled from $1.4 billion to $2.7 billion. With data breaches, extortion, and scams costing business millions, and even large companies such as Capital One can't defend themselves properly, what can a small business do to ensure its data is safe and secure?
Here are a few examples of what you can do today to help improve your companies security:
Utilize cybersecurity tools, such as spam filters, password managers, and anti-virus software. These will never be able to prevent attacks altogether, but are a great first line of defense for any individual or company. Bug bounty programs are becoming more popular these days. A company can encourage individuals to try and breach their defenses, offering a reward to those who do so and responsibly report the issue privately. These are great programs that businesses should absolutely take advantage of, especially if the business handles sensitive information. Hackerone is a popular bug bounty platform. Train yourself and your employees against the dangers of social engineering and phishing attacks. Over $1.2 billion losses were recorded by the FBI to attacks from compromised business email accounts. These attacks are often targeted, and sophisticated. They use social engineering techniques or malicious software to infiltrate a business account, and use it to conduct the unauthorized transfer of funds. These attacks are some of the most common, and can be the most devastating, and the only way to prevent them is proper education and training of employees. It is critical that employees understand security threats and take them seriously. That is where Hacware comes in.
Hacware is a cybersecurity SAAS product that specializes in helping companies identify insider risks through white hat hacking techniques. It uses an A.I. driven phishing system to autonomously send employees realistic phishing attacks. It then provides real-time reporting which contains a breakdown of how many employees fell for the simulated attacks, and provides training information to better secure the company as a whole. Each attack is personalized to the individual employee, and machine learning techniques are used to identify when employees are most vulnerable, and how best to phish them. Hacware is striving to solve the modern cybersecurity crisis that plagues companies everywhere. You can find out more at https://hacware.com/. Cybercrime is an issue that is only getting worse, and it is critical that modern businesses do everything in their power to defend themselves against it. Use every tool at your disposal, from password managers, spam filters, bug bounty programs or phishing tools. Keep your company and yourself safe! It only takes one mistake to cause irreparable damage to your company's finances or reputation.