Is the DoD’s new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) the future, or just another compliance initiative in the long line of competing cyber standards across a fragmented landscape. One thing is certain, this is a different approach.
The 3 Root Causes of Small Business Data Breaches
In 2016, the Ponemon Institute completed a study on the “State of Cybersecurity in Small & Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB).” The study had many interesting findings, with highlights including:
- 55% of small & medium business suffered a cyber-attack in the past 12 months
- 50 % reported data breaches involving customer & employee information in the last 12 months
- 3 out of 4 reported that exploits have evaded their anti-virus solutions
The results align with what we see every day with clients that call us for incident response and recovery services:
The Responsible Business Owner
Resisting change is normal. We wouldn't be human if we didn't have an emotional, almost visceral reaction to major departures in the way things are done. You wouldn't be the successful business owner that you are if you jumped on every new product or service every time a sales person got you on the phone or showed up at your office. In fact, you'd be bankrupt and there would be no business left to run.
In the world of change, there is temporary and there is permanent. Successful businesses are able to identify the difference between "trends" and "fundamental shifts". They resist the flash in the pan trends, but when they see a fundamental shift, they not only embrace it, they lead the way.
So, which is cybersecurity?
100 years ago we didn't have to lock our doors
One of the core criteria we often use when choosing where to live is safety. Given the choice, most of us don't choose to live in a dangerous neighborhood with a high crime rate. In the virtual world, we don’t have that same choice; we all live in a bad neighborhood when it comes to cyber. Whether it’s Beverly Hills, the Pentagon, or Rio de Janeiro, anyone can break into your systems at anytime and from anywhere. Unlike your physical house, you don’t have to be in the same zip code to break in. You don’t even have to be in the same country. All this in mind, we did a comparison between security in the physical world to that of the virtual world.
How much will your small business data breach REALLY cost?
Statistics about data breach costs are all over the map and range from $36,000 to $7 million. We developed a real world data breach cost calculator that is relevant to small businesses. In this article, we educate small business owners on the 9 costs that go into that calculator, and a data breach in general.