Sage Advice - Cybersecurity Blog

At his 2019 CyberCrime Symposium presentation, Jim Reavis saluted the audience for participating in the annual event, noting the high ratio of return attendees.

For its 10th anniversary, the CyberCrime Symposium took to the cloud, where security still concerns, confuses and confounds info-sec pros. For this year’s event, sponsored by AWS, Tyler Cybersecurity put together a stellar lineup of speakers, who took the stage to discuss the high stakes of cybersecurity in a world taken with the cloud.    

With the number of cyberattacks occurring today, it’s especially important for companies to be knowledgeable when it comes to cybersecurity best practices, how to create and nurture cybersecurity culture, and how to hunt for threats on the network. But no organization – large or small, public or private – is immune to a data breach, even with appropriate security measures in place.

Digital privacy is an evolving, hot topic in the world right now. With the rise of ecommerce, digital marketing, online offers, and smart devices, it’s extremely difficult not to have your personal information – whether that be transactional information or information that defines you – out there. But what if we thought about it from the standpoint of your business? How can you make sure your organization is protecting individuals’ data and using best privacy practices? Let’s delve in to how you can create a privacy initiative roadmap for your organization.

As consumers, our information is everywhere. With nearly everything connected to the web, it’s nearly impossible not to have your personal data out there. Because of this, privacy is a hot topic, now, more than ever. This means that entities must take precautions to protect the valuable data they have on you so that your personal data is not stolen.

Digital privacy is an evolving topic that is increasingly part of the cybersecurity discussion. Private information is transmitted in nearly every interaction of every day, from digital habits such as app and website uTyler, to purchases, to driving habits. Looking back at recent data breaches, it’s interesting that the largest breaches didn’t involve stolen credit card or social security numbers. Instead personal information is being stolen in large quantities. This private information is not only extremely valuable to us as individuals, but it’s becoming increasingly attractive for cybercriminals as well.

State-sponsored cyberattacks from national agencies or affiliates are a rising concern. Even though U.S. cyber-responses have become more prevalent, foreign hackers still pose a powerful threat, given the ever-changing threat landscape and heightened abilities of these adversaries.

In the current cyber threat environment, organizations must be vigilant. Vigilance begins with preparation. Being prepared starts with being aware. To be successful, you need to develop cybersecurity awareness throughout your entire organization, which leads to organizational practices that support the secure execution of your business strategy. You need to create a culture of cybersecurity.

Ransomware attacks can have devastating consequences for organizations. Downtime is often more detrimental than ransom costs. Recovery is expensive, and there is a significant cost in system disruption, emergency response, and reputation damage.

Ransomware continues to be a significant threat to organizations of all sizes. Victims of an attack are denied access to their data. Many times, files are encrypted, and a ransom is demanded to restore access. If hit, the best-case scenario is that you have clean backups to restore your systems and can avoid paying the ransom.  However, downtime is often more detrimental than ransom costs. Recovery is expensive, and there is a significant cost in system downtime, emergency response, and reputation damage.