How Safe is Your Business Data, Really? [Infographic]

As a small business, you probably take some measures to protect your data from cybercriminals. Let’s face it, there are a lot more important things to worry about, right? After all, you’re not one of the Googles of the world, so you don’t have much that would interest a hacker, right?

WRONG!

Your business might not have as much juicy data to offer a criminal, but you also don’t have Google-level security. All it takes is one employee clicking on the wrong link to infect a system with malware or ransomware.

These programs are designed to self-replicate, so once they’re up and running, the hacker doesn’t have to do anything. That means that any info that they do get is a bonus.

The program could be designed to steal personal information about your clients for identity theft purposes.

It might be designed to lock you out and force you to pay a ransom to regain access. Or it could be designed to destroy all your data just for the fun of it.

Hackers aren’t the only ones you have to worry about. We all know that social media marketing is highly effective for businesses. But do you know how much information those sites gather about your company or what they use that information for?

Take a look at the infographic that we have for you below for some shocking insight into what Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms do with all the data that they have on you. What’s even scarier is to read up on some of the breaches that these companies have suffered.

Facebook, for example, has had several data scandals in the last few years. The Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed information of around 50 million people. This incident was particularly worrying because a simple online quiz granted access to the stolen information.

While the quiz itself was fun and harmless, it revealed the information of the quiz participants and anyone connected to them. It just goes to show the vulnerability of online data – while you might be overly careful about security, can you say the same for all your clients and employees?

In particular we strongly suggest that you check out the twenty tips at the bottom of the infographic and implement as many of them as possible, so you will know how safe your business data really is!

UPDATE 2021: Ransomware is on the rise again in 2021, so all businesses need to take care to protect your valuable computers and data. The security guys at AdeliaRisk recently wrote a brilliant article called The Ransomware Playbook – 31 Critical Questions which is definitely worth a read when you get a chance, implement their suggestions and make sure that your computers and data are safe.

And for those deluded Mac owners who think that Macs can’t be hacked, they also have an excellent article which you need to read, called 5 Free Mac Cybersecurity Tips. It goes into how to harden your security on the Mac devices, all free and easy enough even for a Mac user to follow! 🙂

Infographic showing how safe your online data is, really.

UPDATE 2022: Verizon recently published their 2021 “Data Breach Investigations Report”, which also covered a number of Australian businesses, as well as large corporations like Dell, Kaspersky, The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and the US Secret Service, right down to local mum and pop stores. The report is available online, but our friends over at Network Assured published a brilliant summary of the report, called “6 Key Takeaways From The Data Breach Investigations Report“, which is highly recommended if you want to learn more about the spread of malware and ransomware on the Internet. The main points for us were:

The report was formed in collaboration with 83 contributors, ranging from companies like Dell and Kaspersky to government bodies like the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and the U.S. Secret Service, along with European and Australian authorities.
Exactly 79,635 incidents were identified and studied during 2021.
Of those, 29,207 met Verizon’s quality standards to ensure they were working from verified incidents with actionable data.
Of those verified, high-quality incident reports, 5,258 of them were confirmed to be data breaches.
This shows an increasing trend in cybersecurity attacks, which isn’t surprising in an increasingly digital world where everybody can access the Internet.

Most common methods of attack included:

Physical theft of cybersecurity assets
Denial of service attacks
Web application attacks
Point-of-sale intrusions
Payment card skimmers
Crimeware (ransomware)
Human or technical error.

If you are at all interested in cyber security, and as a business owner you should be, we strongly recommend that you check out the article on Network Assured’s website today!

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Karthik Reddy

Karthik Reddy, Community Manager, is the author of India’s Number 1 travel blog. Boasting an MBA in computer science, he once decided to get away from the office desk life and take a breathtaking journey around the world. He is eager to use the power of the global network to inspire others.

A passionate traveler and photography enthusiast, he aspires to share his experiences and help people see the world through his lens.