The Most Common Corporate Cybersecurity Risks

“Corporate cybersecurity” refers to the tactics and methods an organization uses to safeguard sensitive data, prevent unauthorized access to information systems, and protect itself from cyber attacks such as malware or ransomware attacks, viruses, phishing emails, endpoint breaches, and so forth.

Cybercrime can be catastrophic for small businesses, but even large enterprises don’t have the luxury of taking cybersecurity for granted. A robust IT security plan is critical to the long-term sustainability of any business.

Cybersecurity incidents such as a data breach or a DDoS attack can not only bankrupt a business; they can also ruin the company’s reputation or cause the company to lose the trust and respect of customers and business partners.

This guide will share several of the most frequently asked questions about corporate cybersecurity risks.

What are Cybersecurity Risks?

As a concept, cybersecurity risk refers to an organization’s vulnerability to losses due to a cyber attack or data breach. Ransomware, phishing, malware, third-party risks, internal risks, compliance failures, and other cyber hazards are examples of specific cyber threats.

Why Do Businesses Need to Plan for Cybersecurity Risks?

Businesses need to plan for cybersecurity risks because those threats can derail your business. They can cost money you didn’t want to spend, cause disruption you didn’t expect, ruin your reputation with customers and business partners, or leave your organization in violation of regulatory compliance obligations that might result in painful enforcement actions.

Whatever the attacker’s goal, every successful hack will almost always result in some form of financial strain for your company. That is why having a strategy for how your business prevents and responds to cybercrime is critical.

A robust cybersecurity risk management plan helps you do the following:

• Identify cybersecurity threats correctly.
• Recognize your company’s most susceptible points.
• Recognize the probable consequences of these risks.
• Create a strategy for defending your business.
• Learn how to reduce the effect of cyberattacks.
• Risk transfer can help to mitigate some of the dangers.

What Companies Need a Cybersecurity Plan?

All of them. Any business that handles sensitive information, whether credit card data, healthcare information, trade secrets, or any company that uses IT systems, must consider the threat cyber criminals pose to the organization. Which is pretty much every business that exists today.

What’s the Difference Between Cybersecurity and Computer Security?

These days, the difference isn’t much. Technically one could say that “cybersecurity” refers to the protection of data and IT systems, while “computer security” pertains to the safety of devices. But with the explosion of networking devices such as wifi routers, cloud-based technologies, IoT (internet of things) devices, and data centers, the terms are often used interchangeably.

What is the Cost of a Cyberattack?

The cost of a cyberattack will vary based on the type of attack and the amount of damage incurred. In addition to recovery expenses, legal penalties may be associated with a breach or attack and legal damages to victims.

That said, here are some interesting numbers to note.

• Global cybercrime damages were predicted to reach $6 trillion annually by 2021.
• Cybersecurity Ventures forecasts international cybercrime costs to increase by 15 percent annually for the next five years, hitting $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.
• In a 2018 report by Radware, the average cost of a cyberattack was reported to have exceeded $1 million. Verizon’s annual data breach report now puts the average cost at $4.2 million as of 2021.

Types of Cybersecurity Threats

What is the top risk for businesses regarding cybersecurity?

According to the Verizon 2020 Data Breach report, almost one-third of breaches that year included social engineering techniques, and 90 percent were phishing attacks. Social engineering attacks manipulate human behavior to attain specific goals – typically through clicking on a link or opening a file.

What are the most common phishing attacks?

The most common types of phishing attacks include:

• Deceptive phishing: the most common method which uses email to steal information by imitating a legitimate business or person.
• Spear Phishing: done via social media using personal information from a user’s profile to customize attack emails for that person.
• CEO Fraud: specifically targets executives to authorize financial transfers by using the business email of a CEO or other high-level executive.
• Vishing: phishing done via the telephone where the criminal pretends to be a known entity to steal sensitive data or secure funds.
• Smishing: another form of digital phishing that occurs via SMS text message through mobile devices, with the same intent to steal data or money.
• Pharming: this form of phishing uses cache poisoning against DNS and redirects users to a website containing malicious code.

What can be done to protect against phishing?

Protecting your organization from a phishing attack requires training your staff on best practices for using their computing and personal devices. Here are a few recommendations to get you started.

• Treat all electronic communications with caution. If a message seems to have phishing links or files, do not open them or respond. Delete it immediately or forward it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at spam@uce.gov.
• Do not divulge personal information via a pop-up page. Legitimate organizations don’t use random pop-up websites to collect personal information.
• Use a firewall or other antivirus software, including phishing filters for your email and web browser. While no internet security tools can eliminate all chances of a phishing message from getting through, they can at least significantly limit them.

What is a ransomware attack?

A ransomware attack is a malware that locks valuable information and holds it for ransom until the owner of the targeted system pays the ransom.

Is it dangerous to store data in the cloud?

The safety of your cloud data depends on the cloud storage provider. That said, most cloud services incorporate more complex security defenses than your local storage option can provide.

Data encryption is an essential feature in a cloud storage solution since encryption puts attackers at a disadvantage; decryption requires a lot of computing power and sophisticated tooling. As a result, it’s often not worth the attacker’s effort; they move on to the next target.

What are the current best practices for business cybersecurity?

Corporate cybersecurity is a big undertaking that requires stakeholder buy-in, employee training, and robust information security controls and monitoring embedded into every aspect of the business.

1. Safeguard your sensitive data.
2. Take caution to avoid suspicious links, pop-ups, and unknown emails.
3. Use strong, complex passwords and two-factor authentication for added security.
4. Connect business devices only to secure wifi routers.
5. Implement antivirus and firewall software and work and at home.
6. Invest in software that monitors your information systems and alerts you to suspicious activity.
7. Keep all software backed up and updated regularly.
8. Assure that all team members, not just IT staff, are trained in cybersecurity best practices.

Responding to Cyberattacks

What should I do after a cybersecurity attack?

The first step in your incident response plan should be to limit a data breach or cyber attack. For example, disconnect the affected servers or devices from your IT environment to avoid spreading the damage to other devices or servers.

Next, assess the damage. What was compromised? What are your legal reporting obligations? What can be salvaged? Once the damage is stopped and the extent ascertained, you can manage the damage, notify the right parties, and begin recovery.

All of this, by the way, should already be outlined in pre-existing incident response plans that can guide your team through a crisis.

How can automation be used in cybersecurity threat response?

Implementing cybersecurity best practices requires time, effort, and documentation. Once those protocols are in place, you need a way to monitor them to assure they are maintained. Furthermore, you must routinely re-evaluate your risks and risk management plan to confirm that the plan is still sufficiently protecting your business.

This can be an overwhelming project when attempted manually. With security automation, many redundant tasks, follow-up, organization, and monitoring can be done for you.

This relieves the burden of manual workflows, increases accuracy by limiting human error, and increases your productivity by freeing up your human resources to focus on more critical tasks that contribute to the growth of the business.

Is Your Business Prepared for the New Cybersecurity Risks?

ZenRisk is a governance, risk management, and compliance tool with various solutions to your needs. It can help to automate and facilitate the documentation and workflows involved in risk assessment, mitigation, and documentation of cybersecurity incident response efforts.

ZenRisk can streamline your cybersecurity strategies for a variety of industries, including:

• Technology
• Financial Services
• Hospitality
• Healthcare
• Government
• Higher Education
• Retail
• Media
• Insurance
• Manufacturing
• Oil & Gas

ZenRisk can also trace your compliance stance across multiple frameworks such as GDPR, PCI DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, and more.

Not only does this help compliance officers feel more effective at their jobs, but it also makes organizations more efficient at the ongoing tasks of cybersecurity risk management and keeps your stakeholders informed.

Schedule a free demo today to see how ZenRisk can improve your cybersecurity strategies.