What is cyber risk, and how does it impact your organization? In the first half alone, bad actors conducted somewhere around 493.33 million ransomware attempts across the globe. What’s more, the cost of these attacks is on the rise. Over the past four years, the average cost of a data breach rose from $8.64 million in 2020 to $9.48 million in 2023. That’s why now more than ever companies need to evaluate the cyber security threats they may be facing today.
These cyber threats aren’t just increasing in damage–they’re evolving to be increasingly complicated. Moving into 2024, organizations have to be on alert for a whole new wave of cyber risk, including attacks like deepfakes, cyber extortion, targeting cloud data storage, compromised supply chains, and zero-day exploits.
What’s to be done? Your organization needs to employ robust security strategies, train your team, and incorporate ongoing monitoring and incident response plans to stay protected. In today's fast-paced digital world, businesses face an ever-increasing array of cyber threats. But where do you start to protect your organization and reduce your risk?
There’s so much jargon out there when it comes to emerging cybersecurity threats and even the most common cyber risks that it can be hard to make sense of it all. From botnets to adware, advanced persistent threats, formjacking, and more, where do you even begin when you want to fortify your cybersecurity?
At Christo IT, we believe that cybersecurity should be accessible to all of our professional partners. And it all starts with knowing about the current trends and how they impact your cyber risk. So what is cyber risk? It’s the likelihood that bad actors will take advantage of how dependent your business is on your cyber resources. Financial firms, medical professionals, and legal firms are all at particularly high risk because of the nature of their work and the type of data they handle.
Some of the biggest cyber risks and security trends coming in 2024 and beyond include:
As you strengthen your cybersecurity strategies, it’s important to identify and prioritize the specific cybersecurity risks your business faces.
It used to be that only large and multinational corporations were frequent targets for attack. But today, 73 percent of small businesses in the US experienced some kind of cyber attack or cyber incident in 2022. The data bad actors were most after? Employee and customer data.
This is especially true of industries and organizations that handle sensitive data that is particularly appealing and profitable for cybercriminals. Sensitive data can mean things like:
Additionally, organizations that work with third-party vendors may be at increased risk because they are also at the mercy of their partners’ security. A cyber risk assessment is one way to understand your organization’s unique and hidden vulnerabilities; it gives you a path forward.
Recovering after a cyber incident can end up being an expensive endeavor. Cyber insurance coverage is designed to insulate you from some of this burden, with financial support to rebuild and take care of your business’s expenses. It protects for things like:
So what is included in cyber insurance? It varies from policy to policy but typically covers things like:
Understanding the role cyber insurance can play in protecting your business from financial liabilities is essential. So often, the question regarding cyber attacks is no longer a matter of “if,” but “when,” and cyber insurance provides a level of surety that you will be able to continue, with all the necessary recovery efforts to stay above water.
At Christo IT, we know your time is valuable—and that we all rely on technology more now than ever before. Your IT infrastructure empowers you to take on all kinds of new initiatives and connect with your customers, clients, and patients in all sorts of ways.
But it also opens the doors to enterprising cyber criminals who are expanding the scope of their attacks and finding new ways to exploit our collective reliance on technology.
So when things go wrong, it can cause even more devastating outcomes.
As a professional who deals with sensitive data and confidential client and patient information, your IT infrastructure can be your biggest strength as well as your biggest vulnerability. And what’s more, you have to face compliance regulations and a long list of to-dos all while trying to maximize billable hours.
It’s always been important to us to reduce your risk of a cyber attack and keep your sensitive data protected through strong cybersecurity.
Join us in January 2024 for a free webinar where we dive deep into the changing face of cybersecurity and what it means for skilled professionals. In this webinar, “Reduce Your Risk: Practical Steps to Fortify, Protect, and Insure Against Cyber Threats,” we’ll be sharing essential information on how to keep your data out of the hands of bad actors.
We’ll be going into even more detail about things like:
We’d love to have you be part of the discussion on Thursday, January 11 at 1 PM ET to get a clearer picture of today’s cybersecurity landscape and learn how you can elevate your security. Learn more, then register for the webinar here. We can’t wait to see you there!