More than half of US businesses have experienced a cyber attack in the past year, according to a survey of business executives by The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co.
The hacking may not come from a source that you are expecting though. Security experts warn that employees are the weak link in safeguarding information. According to the survey negligent or disgruntled employees made up 45% of the cyber attacks while traditional hackers were only 37% of incidences.
The nationwide survey found that of businesses that were hacked in the previous 12 months 72% spent more than $5000 to investigate each attack, restore or replace software and deal with consequences of the hack.
So what can your business do to help protect against a cyber attack?
Plan Ahead – Work with internal IT teams or outside service providers to create a process to backup critical data and test the recovery process to minimize downtime.
Know Your System – Train your employees as to what emails should look like and how to spot something that looks suspicious. If you suspect something is wrong it is better to take a closer look than to ignore it.
Patch and Update – Many Cyber and Randsomware attacked exploit vulnerabilities in software and operating systems, but companies are aware of this and create updates and patches. It is important you regularly apply the latest security patches.
