Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Data Value

Hackers Want Money

Hackers get money by selling our data on the dark web.  What our data is worth depends on many factors such as how complete the record, how many records there are, how current is the data, can it be used for identity theft or maybe to compromise more businesses and gain access to even more valuable data.  Healthcare records, credential databases, and complete financial records are highly sought after by hackers all over the world.

The challenge with Health records being stolen is they cannot be replaced with a new “record”.  Your health record is your health record.  Even your Social Security Number can now be replaced in special circumstances, however, your health record is static.  It is also helpful in Identity theft as well.  This is why it is worth 10 to 20 times more than financial records on the dark web.  Healthcare organizations try valiantly to prevent the theft and privacy of our health records.  The challenge is they have to be perfect and hackers only have to be successful one time.

To tip the scales in your favor against the increasingly sophisticated and numerous attacks on your critical and sensitive data, consider signing up with CyberHoot and implementing the best practices shown below.

CyberHoot Best practices:

1. Train your employees on the common attacks that are out there.  From weak passwords and password managers, to the importance of multi-factor authentication and how to spot phishing attacks.  Awareness is the key to defending your business.
2. Govern you employees with cybersecurity policies including Acceptable Use, Password, Information Handling and a Written Information Security Policy.
3. Establish cybersecurity best practice processes such as a Vulnerability Alert Management Process (VAMP) and a Cybersecurity Incident Management Process (CIMP) to guide and require action in the face of an emergency.  Then move on onboarding and offboarding processes, SaaS management processes, and 3rd party risk management.
4. Establish strong technical protections including: a Firewall, antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spam, multi-factor authentication on all critical accounts,  Enable full disk encryption, manage the keys carefully, and most importantly, adopt, train on and require all employees to use a Password Manager.
5. Test employees on how to spot and avoid phishing attacks.  CyberHoot has released a disruptive method of Phish Testing the fills in gaps in your employees knowledge without punishing them for failure.  Instead we reward them for success.  More info is available here.
6. Backup your data by following our 3-2-1 Backup methodology to ensure you can recover your business from a cybersecurity event.
7. In the modern Work-from-Home era, make sure you’re managing personal devices connecting to your network by validating their security (patching, antivirus, DNS protections) or prohibiting their use entirely.
8. If you haven’t had a risk assessment by a 3rd party in the last 2 years, you should have one now. Establishing a risk management framework in your organization is critical to addressing your most egregious risks with your finite time and money.
9. Buy Cyber-Insurance to protect you in a catastrophic failure situation. Cyber-Insurance is no different than Car, Fire, Flood, or Life insurance. It’s there when you need it most.

CyberHoot believes that for many small to medium sized businesses and MSPs, you can greatly improve your defenses and chances of not becoming another victim of cyberattack if you follow the advice above.