43 percent of all cyber attacks are aimed at small businesses, according to the latest Cost of Cybercrime Study by Accenture. Only 14 percent of all small businesses are actually equipped to defend against cyber attacks. And with the challenges to data security ramping up in difficulty, that subsector will be hard-pressed to raise that percentage. New tech, new business trends, and threat actors who are getting better at adapting to those things all make it that much more complex to protect business-critical data. The only way to unravel the convoluted tangle of modern data privacy is to get intimately acquainted with these challenges. Cybersecurity is an essential part of successful digital marketing, after all.
New Mobile Connectivity Tech, New Security Threats
This has been common knowledge for some time now, but the exponential rate at which the landscape of tech is changing has never been more blatant. Although Moore’s Law is expected to come to an end this decade because of thermodynamic limitations, tech is still advancing fast enough to keep security professionals on their toes. IoT in particular has been on every OpSec-conscious individual’s radar for a while. The internet of things will force everyone to re-evaluate “Bring Your Own Device” policies, as well as every other form of network connectivity. Once mobile devices reach their full IoT capabilities, it will be easier than ever to conduct corporate espionage and sabotage operations.
Another source of concern is the fact that the pace of tech advancement far outstrips the ability of the law to create policies for each new thing that springs up. And even when legislation does cover certain aspects, legal gaps are still ever-present. This is to say nothing of the issue of data ethics, which many entities throughout the world are putting more pressure on in this day and age. As algorithms become more sophisticated, they can develop biases that we may not be able to see at first. But both private and public organizations are obligated to correct anything that may drive unfair decision making. That obligation can open up all manner of exploitable weaknesses.
Costs Rise as Vulnerabilities Increase
With tech outpacing our ability to cover the security gaps that advancements create, the natural outcome is that when said security gaps get exploited, the costs can be downright exorbitant. As of last year, the average cost of a single major data breach jumped up to $4.24 million from 3.86 million in 2020, IBM finds. To avoid such astronomical expense, organizations must focus their data security investments around archiving infrastructure and other privacy protection technologies.
The total number of security vulnerabilities disclosed in 2021 comes up to over 28,000, versus nearly only half that four years prior. Dedicated data privacy companies already exert themselves substantially in order to stay on top of these. To the average IT security admin with standard equipment, this can be exceedingly overwhelming. The sheer ubiquity of exploitable weaknesses makes working with a data privacy partner an absolute necessity if you truly want to protect your data from all possible avenues of attack.
Data Privacy Solutions Need To Be Adaptable As Well As Efficient
Modern ransomware attacks are no longer limited to single machines or small networks. Now, vast networks with hundreds of millions of users can be compromised in their entirety, simply by exploiting human error. This is exactly what happened in the spearphishing attack on Office 365 in late 2020, which was able to bypass all but the most savvy and careful users. To protect against new techniques like this, it is not enough to update your organization on the best operational security practices. You now have to employ data privacy solutions that compensate for every form of human error.
However, the issue with many modern data privacy services is failure to circumvent the inefficiencies created by stringent privacy and compliance policies. Protection techniques for each segment of the data ecosystem falls to their own problems, which are either specific security risks or inefficiencies that can delay data access indefinitely. When you add changing laws and tech, the complexities become even more staggering. According to TripleBlind, it’s important to get advice and assistance from a data privacy service company that offers solutions that deal with all of the common inconveniences that come with data encryption. In an environment defined by ever-shifting legal circumstances, scalable and adaptable data privacy methods are supreme.
Mass Migration to the Cloud Makes Supply Chain Attacks More Devastating
It is widely accepted that in today’s commercial climate, cloud computing makes the most business sense. But it’s easy to forget that the cloud is not an entirely virtual place, but ultimately relies on physical infrastructure in order to function. If any part of this infrastructure is compromised, there is little to stand in the way between attackers and the data of every entity using that cloud service. This threat is made worse when your cloud service provider outsources its operations or does not sufficiently defend against sabotage.
There will only be a small window of time to preempt a catastrophic outcome. It’s absolutely essential that whoever handles data security in the cloud environment can detect a breach as soon as possible, and perform the necessary steps to ensure that data does not fall into the wrong hands. Better than a contingency, however, is an ironclad preventive regime that protects against all but the most determined of attackers. Paired with effective archiving, this will give you the best chances of preserving privacy and data integrity.
Throughout the history of the internet, protecting data has never been easy. While it is true that it is now more difficult than it’s ever been, effective solutions are already starting to surface, with more sure to come up to fill the gaps that remain. As long as business administrators keep themselves in the loop and know what it takes to achieve a solid security posture, bad actors won’t keep the upper hand for long.
