Introduction

As Clive Humby truly stated, “Data is the new Oil” for all the companies in the 21^st Century. He was true in stating that because, data has indeed become one of the biggest resources today and, for organizations with tremendous data banks, it is a humongous task to protect their data from being stolen, manipulated or used for malpractices.

According to TechRepublic, the first half of the year 2019 saw 3800 data breaches, which is 50% higher as compared to data breaches between 2015 to 2018.

Post-installation the organization, higher the chances of data and security breach. The risks range from financial losses to reputational losses which may take years to recover for such companies.

Even though some of these breaches are immediately controlled, some of them are too big to be handled and these breaches negatively affect the organization’s growth resulting in huge losses.

Data breaches are internal or external and, its effects are catastrophic for organizations that have faced such breaches.

Cybersecurity spending will increase in 2020

It is predicted that the cyber-security spending will reach $128 billion in 2020 because most of the reputed companies prefer using cybersecurity programs to mitigate the risk and cope up with all sorts of security breaches.

Technological advances have resulted in hackers finding innovative ways to leak the data. So, organizations should upgrade their security systems and implement the latest risk mitigating strategies for keeping data breaches at bay.

Here is a suggested five-step strategy which companies can refer to and prevent Information Security Breaches:

• Implementing a cybersecurity program throughout the organization

The first step to avoid a data breach is to execute an organization-wide Cyber Security Program which includes installation of anti-virus software on every machine to detect external intrusion of all sorts and avoid it.

The creation of multi-layered authentication for highly sensitive data and a secured network to prevent internal data leaks is advisable. Regularly upgrading the security software and implementing the security protocols at all levels is also necessary to avoid data leaks.

• Hiring an External Agency

Post-installation of a cybersecurity program, testing its vulnerability is also important. Companies can use third party agencies to assess the cyber readiness of their information security systems through methods like penetration testing, breach table-top crisis simulations, and various other support exercises. This helps in understanding how secure the system is and the necessary steps required to protect it from further breaches.

Such external audits should be conducted at regular intervals throughout the company to prevent data leaks and breaches.

• Crisis Planning

Even though organizations take every measure to stop the information & security breaches in their systems, sooner or later it does happen. So, the organization should have immediate action plans in place to deal with such leaks.

To avoid losing data or avoid the risk of malware, it is advisable to create a daily/weekly/monthly data backup plan. Storing these data-backups safely post encryption is also advisable.

• Trained Work Environment

The commonest data breach (internal data breach) happens through employees using personal electronic devices at the workplace. And, banning the use of such devices works to a limited extent.

Also, the breach can happen when the employees access their computers outside the organization through an external unsecured network. The best way to prevent this is to train the employees about cautiously using an unsecured network and how to stop a breach if it happens on that network.

Defining a clear policy for penalties regarding intentional data thefts and its circumstances is advisable and preferable.

• Cyber Security Insurance

Lastly, the organizations should hire a cyber insurance specialist to suggest the best practices that ensure the protection from an information breach. Insurance will seem to be a dead investment if there is no breach, but it will pay off even if one such incident occurs.

Conclusion

From a bird’s eye view, many tech giants like Facebook, Yahoo!, Google, etc. have experienced cyber crises first hand and have learned important lessons the hard way. These companies have invested a huge amount of money in securing their information and are willing to do so in the future.

So, the companies who are unwilling to invest in cyber insurance should start thinking about investing in it and should have good security systems in place to avoid any catastrophic events.