How Does a Data Breach Happen?
The first step to preventing breaches of your company’s computer network is understanding the most common causes of data breaches. More than half of data breaches involve criminal hacking, but not every data breach is the result of a planned cyberattack; it’s possible for numerous customers’ data to get stolen because of theft of papers or devices, and some data breaches are a purely opportunistic response to an unwitting mistake by a company employee.
A comprehensive cybersecurity strategy can help you prevent the most common types of data breaches. Though some data breach vulnerabilities are more difficult to prevent than others, your cybersecurity strategy can help you mitigate the damage caused by even the hardest to prevent breach. The New York cybersecurity consultants at Perspective Omni Media can help you reduce your vulnerability to these common types of data breaches.
An Inside Job
According to the IT Governance blog, approximately 12 percent of data breaches are the result of misconduct by people authorized to access confidential data in the company. One out of 25 incidents involving theft of customers’ data involve the old-fashioned theft of physical objects. This type of breach begins when an employee of the company steals papers or devices that contain customers’ identifying details or financial information. Backing up data on hard drives and printing hard copies is a sound strategy for preventing data loss, but it can backfire if someone steals those backup copies.
Two data breaches out of 25 involve employees misusing their access to customer data—think of it as a subset of identity theft known as identity embezzlement. An example of this is when employees use their personal cell phones to take pictures of papers and computer screens bearing clients’ confidential financial information.
A Confidence Trick
Twenty-two percent of data breaches begin with various types of scams euphemistically known as “social engineering.” The most well-known type of social engineering scam is phishing, where scammers solicit passwords by sending emails that appear, to the undiscerning eye, to come from the victim company. Financial pretexting is another type of social engineering confidence trick. This happens when scammers contact employees or customers of the victim company by phone and persuade them, using false pretenses, to disclose their financial information.
An Honest Mistake
Believe it or not, just as many data breaches begin with employees revealing confidential information to the wrong people by accident as social engineering scams. The most common employee mistakes are when an employee sends an email containing sensitive data to the wrong person or attaches the wrong file to an email.
The Perfect Cybercrime
More than half of data breaches are the result of targeted cyberattacks involving cyber weapons such as RAM scrapers, keyloggers, and SQL injection. These tend to be the most destructive kinds of cyberattacks.
Your Best Defense Against all Kinds of Cyberattacks
Cyberattacks can come from many different directions, so it is vital to have a multi-pronged cybersecurity strategy. Contact Perspective Omni Media in Iselin, New Jersey about preventing the various types of data breaches.