Keeping your private, personal, information safe is becoming more and more important.
Data security could mean, encryption, key management, and multifactor authentification on top of that. Most people. and companies, don’t take these precautions. But they certainly should. This article contains 10 facts that you NEED to know about ‘data security to keep you. and your data, safe.
#1 – Identify thefts the fastest growing form of crime in the United States and Canada, partly because the USA has some poor credit card safety practices. The rest of the world outdated these practices years ago, or simply never had them in the first place. You might think that handing your card to the server for them to walk off and use out of sight is normal, and it is. But only in the USA. When your card leaves your sight it becomes at risk of being copied, and your identity being stolen.
#2 – The University of Maryland has recently done a study that estimates there is a cyber attack happening at least once every 39 seconds. That means that there are over 2200 hacker attacks each day. It is such a frequent occurrence, yet people assume it is something that could never happen to them.
#3 – Mobile phones are one of the biggest ways we put ourselves at risk. Cold calling and robocalling trying to steal personal information are becoming far, far, more frequent. If you receive a call from a number you don’t recognize, try using a number lookup website such as https://nuwber.com. This is the best way to find who is calling and can help you decide if you want to answer or not.
#4 – Cybercrime is very lucrative. That’s why so many criminals have turned to it as their newest scam. It is so successful that in 2018 the estimated losses from cybercrime surpassed $1 trillion worldwide. Which is an astronomical number! This is why taking proper precautions is so important. The majority of this money comes from ordinary people. not huge mega-corporations. It can happen to you, just as easily as it can happen to them.
#5 – If you follow the news, you may remember the huge scandal when Equifax had their security breached. Millions of people’s personal information were stolen. It took Equifax months to even notice that they had a breach, and then even longer to bother reporting it. The average time for a company to notice that they have had a security breach is approximately 6 months. By this time your data can be stolen. used, and sold ten times over. Don’t put too much blind trust in these faceless corporations.
#6 – Online safety is very important, of course, but the biggest risk to yourself online is you. The number of security breaches that are due to nothing but human error is 95%, Or in other words, almost all of it. You must be careful online, if you always keep your data security in mind you will probably be fine. The good news about this statistic is that you are the biggest factor in how safe your data is. If you focus on being careful, don’t share your private information freely, and always verify whos trying to contact you on websites such as Nuwber.com you should be fine.
#7 – There is an independent cybersecurity entity called “Securityscorecard”. They do yearly evaluations of various industries to determine how good their security is. This can be very useful for the general public because it allows us to see just how secure the info we must hand over in daily life, truly is. For example, did you know they discovered that last year the health care industry had some of the worst security of any service or company? They found that 75% of the healthcare industry had such poor security protocols in place that they had been infected with malware. The reason this is so scary is because of just how much of our personal information they have. When you go to the doctors/hospital you are expected to provide huge quantities of extremely personal information. There is a 75% chance that data could be stolen; if it hasn’t been already.
#8 – There is currently a shortage of cybersecurity professionals, not just in the United States, but worldwide. There are hundreds of thousands of positions that need to be filled in the US alone. This is a contributing factor to why so many companies have such poor security. There are simply not enough workers to fill the demand. If you are looking for a high paying job. with a huge market for work, cybersecurity might be for you.
#9 – If you are running a small business, you are one of the biggest targets for a cyber attack. This is because you very likely don’t have the proper security in place, and don’t have the funds or know-how to fight them back. This can be particularly devastating to a small business, as your customers will lose faith and brand loyalty, ultimately leading to them leaving you for a competitor. Not only will you lose customers, but
you will also lose employees. If your business spends a lot of time being down because the systems are offline. you may not be able to afford to pay your employees. Even though they can’t work. they still need to be paid. They have bills to pay. if you can’t afford to pay them they will eventually leave you too, just like your customer base. This is why having good security is so important.
#10 – One of the biggest threats to a company’s security is through phishing emails. Emails pretending to be someone they are not to steal your personal information, such as login details to company servers. These emails are such a risk that you will probably want to invest in proper training for your employees about how to spot phishing emails.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has opened your eyes to the importance of data security. Your online security is so important for both your self and your company. If you keep the information in this article in mind, you should be just fine. if you make sure to use your common sense, verify the phone number or email of the person trying to contact you, and never share private information online you will maximize your chances of staying safe.
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