What is Cybersecurity and Who Needs It?

cybersecurity

Cyber threats are increasing each day in different shapes and sizes. Being unprepared is a risk that few, if any, can afford.

If you stop to consider the fact that practically every aspect of our lives are available on the internet, from social media to digital hospital records to online banking and trading, the question of “Who needs cybersecurity?” is easy to answer: Everyone needs cybersecurity.

As long as there are hackers and cyber criminals determined to steal, breech, and otherwise, undermine security, both personal and professional, we all should have reliable cybersecurity.

What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is the process of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks. The primary aim of cyberattacks is to access, change, or destroy sensitive information; demanding money from users; or interrupting normal business processes.

Cybersecurity is more challenging today because so many devices exist; in fact, more devices than people. In addition, cyber criminals are becoming more innovative, often giving them the advantage of surprise.

Cybersecurity and Data Privacy

The goal of cybersecurity is protecting data from theft and breaches. Security of personal information is essential to privacy, but privacy also oversees how data about individuals is collected, shared,and used. Without security, privacy doesn’t exist. As consumers we must understand our role in maintaining a secure ecosystem of connected devices.

Better digital hygiene is only part of the issue. Individual consumers and end users of technology at work must realize that data privacy and security is about more than protecting networks with firewalls, software, and IT-enforced policies. It’s also about making security-minded purchase decisions for endpoint devices, such as laptops and printers.

The Cyber Threat Reality

Studies show that security professionals say the frequency of attacks against the endpoint devices under their watch has increased over the past 12 months. Ransomware attacks have reportedly breached government agencies, educational institutions, and healthcare organizations offline for extended periods of time.

On the consumer side, at least 7.9 billion credit card numbers, home addresses, phone numbers and other sensitive customer data were exposed through 5,183 data breaches during the first nine months of 2020, a 33% increase from the previous year.

The harsh reality is — this is likely to increase as connected devices continue to evolve and encapsulate our lives in the digital world even more. For example, 5G networks are expected to propel internet of things (IoT), smart city and autonomous vehicle technologies to new heights. Sadly, it will also increase global cybersecurity threats by opening millions, if not billions more internet ports for hackers to probe.

Take Action and Be Prepared Before a Cyber Threat

Be Cloud Ready

A Cloud Readiness Assessment of your current IT infrastructure can be conducted by VAZATA to make recommendations on which cloud platform to use, then providing a turnkey solution from concept to the cloud.

Be on the Offense

The best way to deal with malware, ransomware, phishing, and other cyber threats is to take them on offensively. VAZATA offers an Endpoint Protection solution using a streaming-data analytics platform. It combines the power of AI to block malware infections with additional security controls.

Be Email Secure

VAZATA offers Email Protection in a cloud-based solution to block spam, malware, phishing, and such. This solution catches everything by utilizing computer vision, AI, and machine learning. It adds an important layer of security to every inbox.

Be Smart

Employee and end-user training is critical to maintain a culture of cybersecurity compliance and responsibility. Knowledgeable, trained employees who understand the risks of poorly managed cybersecurity are a safeguard to any organization.

With cyberthreats becoming more prevalent, no organization should disregard the added safety these types of features present. Everyone, from business leaders to individual consumers, must come together to combat this threat or risk being a victim of it.

Contact VAZATA today to learn more about Cybernetic Cybersecurity.