The Cost of Having Your Security Breached
In recent times Cyber-attacks and security breaches are in the order of the day, current events make us hesitate about our security while doing the most common things, like watching a YouTube video, or just reading our favorite news site.
Even though some might think that cyber-attacks are only aimed towards companies and governments that’s a wrong belief, as cyber-attacks are also a tool hackers use against the regular users of the internet.
At best a cyber-attack can be just a bad time, but more complex and intricate attacks can prove to be devastating and have long-lasting repercussions on the victim.
Individual Targeted Attacks
When it comes to attacking individual hackers have a variety of tools to make you suffer for a while, these attacks have various degrees of impact.
The most common scenario of a cyber-attack is where a hacker gets hands on your credit card information and uses it for making fraudulent purchases online with your data, these attacks are more of a nuisance, this is because credit card holders usually get their money back if the report the fraudulent charges the hackers have made in time.
This is a problem for both customers and banking entities as they present problems in their security networks, and represent a loss of money and trust of the clients.
This is not the only inconvenience that comes with getting your credit card information stolen, as almost always this info I accompanied by personal data like address, Medical data, and social security numbers, which may lead to a full identity theft
Company targeted attacks
Companies must always be on high alert as they are top priority targets for hackers. High profile companies like Google and Yahoo are still targeted (Although not always exposed) to cyber-attacks. Primarily looking for data breaches and presented security issues that need to be solved (White hat hacking), but for the most part, significant and publicized attacks make the companies look weak and insecure, this always punishes the price of the stocks of the company.
As well as individuals Companies have been victims of Ransomware and large sums of money have been paid to have their systems unlocked. But what companies fear the most is losing their intellectual property, having their brand secrets exposed to the public eyes, and having sensitive information leaked to the web, product designs, customer lists, and this information is precious as it represents the foundations of the company and the present revenue and the potential future revenue. Chinese nationals have often been accused of hacking into web services of famous American and European brand in other to steal Intellectual property, such as patents and schematics. With potential millions possibly going to waste, many companies are taking the jump on digital security by taking a more protective approach at securing their information, but not only by making it harder for hackers to get into their technology systems but also by changing processes and the way people access their data as well