In the face of the growing trend of technology assimilation in our daily activities, it is clear that cybersecurity is becoming a crucial aspect. When we are aware of this, we realize how priceless this is and we can rank it according to its importance.

The majority of digital assets, such as personal data and important information, are very valuable and may be in danger in online space thus, they need additional protection against online threats. Crypto viruses, phishing emails and online spies are only a few of the headaches about the growing cybersecurity threat. The fact that we will be able to prevent these dangers successfully will depend on your understanding. We go into depth on this topic by explaining the necessary steps to build a safety umbrella for our digital resources, making the internet better for everyone.

Importance of Protecting Digital Assets

It’s very important to keep digital assets safe in a world that is becoming more and more digital. Personal data, bank records, intellectual property, creative material, and important business information are just some of the useful information that is considered digital assets. Protecting these things is important when it comes to various areas of our personal and work lives. Here are some reasons why it’s important to keep digital assets safe:

1. Competitive Advantage
2. Intellectual Property Protection
3. Prevention of Cyber Threats
4. Reputation Management
5. Compliance and Legal Obligations
6. Privacy Preservation
7. Financial Security
8. Preservation of Digital Memories
9. Business Continuity

The first thing you need to do to protect your digital goods is to know how much they are worth. Understanding how important your data is, whether it has a personal or business reason, is essential for putting good security measures in place.

Overview of Cybersecurity Risks

Cybersecurity can be defined as the processes, technologies, and practices that keep cybercriminals from getting to a company’s intellectual property, customer data, and other private data without permission. Cybercrime is becoming more common and serious, and all businesses need to make better digital risk management a part of their overall risk management plan.

No matter how much risk your company is willing to take, you must include cybersecurity planning as part of your overall risk management process and routine business activities. It’s a big risk for any company who chooses to neglect the thoughts of cybersecurity measures. 

Types of Cyber Threats

Cybersecurity applies to all systems that support an organization’s business operations and goals, as well as compliance with rules and laws. An organization will normally create and apply cybersecurity controls across its operations to preserve the security, privacy, and accessibility of information assets.

Cyberattacks are carried out for a number of objectives, including money laundering, information theft, activist causes, denial of service, and disrupting key infrastructure and important functions of the government or an organization.

The six common types of cyber security risks:

• Insiders and service providers
• Nation states
• Developers of substandard products and services
• Poor configuration of cloud services like S3 buckets
• Cybercriminals
• Hacktivists

Common cybersecurity threats in terms of cyber attacks include:

• DDoS attacks
• Denial-of-Service attacks.
• Ransomware
• Phishing attacks
• Social engineering attacks

To evaluate your organization’s cyber risk profile, you must first identify what information is valuable to outsiders or would create shocking disruption if unavailable or corrupted.

Potential targets to consider to cyber criminals

You need to consider these as potential targets to cyber criminals:

• Intellectual property
• Employee data
• Sensitive data
• Customer data
• Financial data
• IoT devices
• Contract terms and pricing
• Strategic planning
• Third and fourth party vendors
• Product quality and safety

Costly Consequences of Neglecting Cybersecurity

The repercussions of a cybersecurity breach can be crippling. Financial losses, legal liabilities, and damage to your brand’s reputation are just the tip of the iceberg. 

As a business owner, you depend on your team to do important things like making payments. But what happens if an employee falls for a phishing scam and pays a fake bill because they think it came from a reliable source like QuickBooks?

A small marketing company we’ll call “Scale Content.” went through the same thing. The accountant for the company got an email one day saying there was a problem with their QuickBooks account. There was a link in the email to a fake bill, which the accountant quickly paid without realizing it was a scam.

This hacking attack was carried out by someone who knew that Scale Content. used QuickBooks for their accounts. They made a fake email and website that looked a lot like the real QuickBooks site, right down to the names and branding. The accountant didn’t think anything was wrong, so he or she paid the bill as normal.

The hacker took the money as soon as the payment was made. There was no way for Scale Content. to get back a large amount of money that it had lost.

The CEO of the company was heartbroken. Not only did they lose a lot of money, but they also made their financial information less safe. That lesson cost a lot of money and could have been avoided with better computer security.

This story shows how important it is to keep your business safe from cyberattacks, even if the attacks seem to come from reliable sources.

People who do business with you expect you to keep their private information safe. A breach can quickly lose that trust.

Also, the amount of time and money needed to recover from an attack can be too much, taking your focus away from your main business tasks. Not all businesses can get back on their feet, and when they don’t, they have to close, which hurts staff members and the communities where they’re located.

Take Note: Potential consequences of a successful cyber attack

1. Data loss or theft

2. System downtime and operational disruptions

3. Financial losses

4. Reputational damage

5. Legal and regulatory implications

Steps to take to safeguard your company

Here are a few steps you can take to safeguard your company:

• Talk to your team about how to spot fake emails and websites and how to spot a phishing attack.
• Set strong password standards and make sure they are updated often. It is very important to make strong, unique passwords and to change them often. A good password should not be easy to figure out. Instead, it should be made more difficult by using a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers (7438309549575), and special characters (&^%$(*!@#$).
• Turn on two-factor authentication if possible. MFA needs users to provide at least two forms of identification, like a password and a unique code sent to their phone. In this case, even if one factor is broken, the other will still keep your assets safe. Risk-based security is something that companies can use. At a certain amount of risk, it only asks for extra passwords. You can use one of the online login systems that are already out there instead of making a new one.
• Spend money on strong cyber security tools like firewalls and antivirus software.
• You might want to hire a cyber security expert to look at your current security measures and give you advice on how to make them better.
• Software and system update. Software and systems have their strengths, but they are not flawless. Hackers are constantly on the lookout for these vulnerabilities in order to exploit them and gain unauthorized access or cause harm. Continuous software development and the release of updates are intended to address these flaws. Regularly updating your software enhances system performance, introduces new features, and safeguards against vulnerabilities. Software updates frequently incorporate security patches that target identified vulnerabilities within the system.

You can greatly lower your chances of being hit by a cyberattack like what the Scale Content. went through by following these steps. Cybersecurity should be a top priority for your company right now, not later when it’s too late.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity is not a choice; it’s a must. Your company’s image and ability to stay in business are at risk. You’re not only protecting your organization, but also making the internet a better and more stable place for everyone through spreading knowledge and taking steps to protect your digital assets.