Have you ever scrolled through Facebook and seen the provocative polls about what your favorite color is or perhaps a memory that reminds you of your mother?  You might have even been tempted to share your take on these questions to see how they compare to other people’s.  Now what if you knew that that answer was being catalogued by someone who was primed to figure out who you were so that they could steal your identity. Finding the hidden threat is key.

This is hard to hear and often we try to push these sorts of things from our head but it is more important now than ever to really understand the consequences of “oversharing” online.  While not every online situation is as extreme as the one described above, this is a very real example of data management that can stop you from being the target of a cyberattack.

It is one of the unfortunate downsides of our virtual world, that we have to constantly worry about what information is out there.  And it is also true that there we should not stress ourselves out and shy away from living a social life online.  However, we must find a balance between safety and society in order to ensure that we keep what we want private.

This is even an issue for companies. Recently, social media has become a powerful tool for companies to take advantage of for marketing and customer service.  However, it opens up a large hole for cyberattacks to walk through.  Cyber attacks can cost business over 4.4 million per attack so finding a balance between useful and secure is highly important.

While it would be lovely to say that this balance is very easy to find and maintain, that would simply be a lie.  Over 97% of people cannot identify a phishing email.  This raises concerns for businesses, especially large ones.  If 97% of employees can fall victim to phishing attempts, this means that over 97% of the business can open up the company to potentially catastrophic cyber attacks.

This is something that cyber criminals know and abuse, and it is also why cyber attacks have risen dramatically over the past year.  One of the hardest hit sectors has been the healthcare industry.  With an almost 50% increase in documented cyber attacks from 2020 alone, businesses have begun to recognize that their current protocol is less than satisfactory.

Knowing this, there have been several attempts to identify cyber threats over the past year. While the origins of cyber attacks can be hard to define, they can be easy to protect yourself if you follow some simple rules.  Knowing your data is extremely important. If you know where everything is you can easily protect and strengthen attacks against it.  There is also software designed to help protect you and your data.

Like everything in life, all good things are equally balanced out with challenges.  If you are cautious, you can enjoy all the benefits of the online world without any harmful effects.

“Most organizations do not have the security tools or more importantly the human expertise required to stop these attacks. Hackers are humans and must be stopped by humans.”
— Lyndon Brown, Chief Strategy Officer, Pondurance