Two words – “Cyber Survival” – are the title of an article that appears in Insight magazine, published by the Illinois CPA Society. Those two words are an excellent description of what we all face in today’s digital society.
As reported in the article, cyber attacks of scale are on the rise. The number of reported data breaches from 2015 to 2016 jumped 40 percent. And while 2017 isn’t quite over, several large companies, including Blue Cross Blue Shield/Anthem, Deloitte, Dun & Bradstreet, InterContinental Hotels Group, Whole Foods, and many more, have all experienced breaches this year. Equifax discovered it was the target of perhaps the most critical data breach in history.
These breaches will continue to be a part of our lives and we will continue to hear about them as cybersecurity becomes increasingly important. As we saw in 2017, companies both large and small are susceptible, and 2018 will most likely prove no different. As our reliance on digital data and technologies grows, so will the threats, as cyber hacking continues to become a more democratic process — now, it seems anyone can do it.
Our CTO, Jeremy Steinert, is quoted in the article with his advice on protecting against this growing threat of cyber attacks. Jeremy points out that defense against cyber attacks can be a fraction of what is incurred due to a business disruption or remediation steps following a breach. This is why backup programs or disaster recovery plans are so important to have in place at any organization.
To help with your cyber survival, WSM offers comprehensive security scans of websites and hosting servers to identify potential security vulnerabilities and prevention against future attacks, along with penetration testing services to assess IT security vulnerabilities and help protect data.
As the article says, “As long as attackers believe they have a chance to succeed, attacks will keep coming.” The key for all of us is to take measures that discourage attackers from thinking they have a chance to succeed.
