We hear a lot about cybersecurity and the risk of our information being stolen. But how many of us know how widespread the problem really is?
Anyone who uses a computer or other device to access internet portals and conduct personal or work-related business is at serious risk of having information retrieved or otherwise compromised…and it’s getting worse by the day.
In the early days of online activity, all we really had to worry about was whether we had sufficient virus protection. But with the constant quantum leaps in information technology since then, it’s become all too easy for us to fall victim to sophisticated criminals now lurking online in nearly 200 countries…waiting for an opportunity to steal our data.
61% per cent of us are doing our banking online, exposing our most sensitive transactions to prying eyes. And about 10% of social media users have been targeted by cyber-threats. It’s estimated that some 600,000 Facebook accounts are compromised each day.
But the stories that make the headlines involve large organizations – public and private – whose records are stolen on a grand scale. These days, it takes an army of systems engineers and IT support people just to keep things running smoothly. All too often, though, too little time and effort are spent playing defense, such as evaluating network design and doing the painstaking extranet risk analysis needed to expose parts of the system that are vulnerable to intrusion.
Despite the publicity that those large-scale data breaches generate, 53% per cent of U.S. companies express little or no confidence that they will be prepared to block such intrusions in the next twelve months. And 40% per cent of small businesses report that they never back up their data.
With the proliferation of handheld devices has come an onslaught of malicious programs designed specifically to take advantage of flaws in mobile network design. Nearly 145,000 new ones were detected in 2013. That’s three times as many as in the previous year.
In January 2012, FBI Director Robert Mueller predicted that cybersecurity risk would become the number one threat to the United States – surpassing even terrorism.
Network design vulnerability can be the Achilles heel of any company, agency or organization that does business online. Sadly, the world we live in forces us to be vigilant at all times, because the risk of doing otherwise is far too great. So it’s wise to anticipate all the things that might go wrong and take the necessary steps to prevent them.
Fortunately, expert help is available in the form of companies with the knowledge and expertise to recognize, counter and eliminate whatever the criminal element comes up with next. Any business or agency that’s concerned about protecting its data can call on these specialists for advice regarding storage system design, IT management, diagnostics and repair and a variety of other services.
