Tag Archives: miami cybersecurity experts

05.12.21
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How Can Cybersecurity & Resilience Protect Your Small Miami Business?

How Can Cybersecurity & Resilience Protect SMBs?

Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) usually invest less in cybersecurity, making them easier targets for cybercriminals. Close to 30% of businesses experience a cyberattack at least once per week.1

The need for constant vigilance and defense against hackers has led many SMBs to complicate cybersecurity matters. Though the percentage of businesses that have adopted formal, business-wide incident response plans has increased from 18% in 2015 to 26% in 2020, the ability to contain an actual attack dropped by 13%.2 This is because: (1) businesses do not consistently test threat-readiness of incident response plans and (2) many of them use too many security products that hamper the ability to identify and respond to a cyberattack.

It is here where a cyber resilience strategy can help organizations protect uptime and recover from incidents faster. Some people use the terms cybersecurity and cyber resilience simultaneously, but the meanings are different.

While cybersecurity primarily aims at blocking nefarious cyber players from attacking your network, cyber resilience is more about planning, defending, responding to and recovering quickly from a cyberattack. Endpoint protection, email security, network security, backup and data recovery, identity and access management and a host of other critical solutions together fuel a comprehensive cyber resilience strategy.

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Arm Your Business with Cyber Resilience

The cyberthreat landscape is evolving at lightning speed and traditional security measures cannot keep up with it. Experts have predicted that a ransomware attack will occur every 11 seconds in 2021.3 The only way forward for businesses, including yours, is to draft a cyber resilience strategy that highlights ways to move forward in the face of a cyberattack.

Your business is cyber resilient when:

  • You’ve implemented measures to guard against cyberattacks
  • Proper risk control measures for data protection get deployed
  • Hackers cannot severely disrupt business operation during or after an attack

The major components of a cyber resilience strategy are:

  • Threat protection

By deploying efficient attack surface management and risk management, you can easily take your business through the path of cyber resilience. Doing so helps you minimize first-party, third-party or fourth-party risks that arise because of data leaks, data breaches or misconfigurations. Additionally, assessment reports identify key risk areas that require attention.

  • Adaptability

Cybercriminals are shapeshifters who constantly change their devious tactics. Ensure your business can adapt to emerging cyberthreats.

  • Recoverability

To quickly bounce back after a security incident, your business must have all the necessary infrastructure, including robust data backups. Conducting mock drills that let you understand the employee readiness to counter cyberattacks is also important.

  • Durability

Your IT team can improve the business’ durability through constant system enhancements and upgrades. No matter what strategy the criminals use, prevent their actions from overwhelming you through shock and disruption.

 

5 Ways Cyber Resilience Protects SMBs

Adopting cyber resilience proves beneficial before, during and after cyberattacks. Five ways cyber resilience protects SMBs:

  1. Enhances system security, work culture and internal processes

By implementing a cyber resilience approach within your business, you can easily design and develop strategies tailor-made for your existing IT infrastructure. Additionally, cyber resilience improves security within each internal process, so you can communicate desired behavior to employees.

  1. Maintains business continuity

Cyber resilience ensures that operations are not significantly affected and business gets back to normal after a cyberattack.

  1. Reduces financial loss

The financial damage caused by a breach can be so severe that businesses go bankrupt or even close. Cyber resilience keeps threats in check, reducing the chances of business disruption as well as limiting financial liabilities.

  1. Meets regulatory and insurance requirements

Cyber resilience helps keep your business out of regulatory radars by satisfactorily following all necessary criteria. Also, complying with regulations can be beneficial to your business for cyber insurance claims.

  1. Boosts company reputation

Having cyber resilience by your side gives you better control in the event of a successful cyberattack. It helps you block attacks, bounce back quickly if an incident happens and minimize the chaotic aftereffects of a breach. This improves your business reputation among partners and customers.

Don’t worry if the concept of cyber resilience is tough to crack. We can guide your business to and through cyber resilience. Start with an assessment to check your business’ cyber resilience level. Contact us now!

Not sure where to start?

The Cybersecurity Experts at Third Power IT can help. As Miami’s premier Cybersecurity consultants, Third Power IT can help you implement a secure network that is IT compliant and safe.

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Article curated and used by permission.

Sources:

  1. Infosecurity Magazine
  2. The 2020 Cyber Resilient Organization Study
  3. JD Supra Knowledge Center

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04.16.21
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Cybersecurity Awareness Training: An Essential Investment For Protecting Your Network From A Cyber Attack

Did you know employee error accounted for nearly a quarter of data breaches in 2020?

 

That’s why it’s so important to implement routine security awareness training for your employees.

 

As the first line of defense against cyber attacks, your employees must be thoroughly and regularly trained to identify and deflate potential cyber threats. This can help you prevent a vulnerability from escalating into a disastrous cyber attack.

 

What Is Security Awareness Training?

 

In order to deal with the growing cyber threat landscape, your employees need thorough and regular security awareness training.

 

Security awareness training is the ongoing process of educating your employees on best practices when it comes to cybersecurity.

 

This training should include:

 

  • How to create strong passwords and keep them protected
  • How to identify suspicious emails, links and more
  • How to implement and manage security patches

 

When employees know what to look for and what to avoid, they will be less likely to fall victim to a cyber attack.

 

Why Invest In Security Awareness Training?

 

When you invest in security awareness training, employees will be well equipped to identify cyber threats and respond to them quickly and efficiently.

 

This can save your business from:

  • Data breaches
  • Damage to reputation
  • Expensive lawsuits

 

The following statistics further highlight why you should invest in regular security awareness training:

 

  • 80% of organizations experience at least one compromised account threat per month.
  • 67% of data breaches result from human error, credential theft or social attack.
  • Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, phishing attacks have gone up by 67%.

 

As you can see, cyber threats are only getting more common, and they’re here to stay. Why not train your employees to help ward them off?

 

Implement Security Awareness Training Now

 

Help your employees help you. When you implement security awareness training, your employees will feel a greater sense of responsibility to keep your network safe.

 

Plus, they’ll know how to avoid minor mistakes that can snowball into a massive data breach that will negatively impact that whole company.

 

With ongoing training, you can transform your biggest cybersecurity risk – your employees – into your prime defense against cyber threats.

 

Take the first step toward developing a security culture that emphasizes adequate and regular security awareness training.

 

Not sure where to start?

 

The cybersecurity experts at Third Power IT can help. As Miami’s premier network security consultants, Third Power IT can help you implement a security awareness training program that works.

 

Ask us about our custom offerings today. Call us now at 844-677-3687 and learn more at www.ThirdPowerIT.com.

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Article curated and used by permission.

 

Sources:

  1. McAfee Cloud Adoption & Risk Report
  2. Verizon 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report
  3. Security Magazine Verizon Data Breach Digest

 

 

 

The post Cybersecurity Awareness Training: An Essential Investment For Protecting Your Network From A Cyber Attack appeared first on Third Power IT – Managed IT Services.

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04.07.21
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Supply Chain Compliance Regulations: How HIPAA And GDPR Affect Your Supply Chain

Do you know if your supply chain is compliant with current data protection regulations?

 

With tech-related threats evolving faster than ever before, supply chain risks have taken on a new meaning in today’s digital world.

 

While traditional supply chain risk management revolved around strategy, market reality and performance risks, today it must also focus on cybersecurity controls and data breach risk mitigation.

 

As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure your supply chain is compliant with data protection regulations.

 

If your supply chain is non-compliant with regulatory standards, you’ll face legal repercussions. What’s more, you could lose the trust of your customer base.

 

Remember: it takes years to build your business’ reputation but just one unfortunate moment to ruin it all.

 

So, what can you do to ensure your supply chain is compliant?

 

Keep reading to find out now.

 

HIPAA & GDPR: How Supply Chain Regulations Affect You

 

There are two major global regulations that oversee supply chain compliance.

 

While one is specific to the healthcare industry, the other pertains to any business that collects customer data.

 

Healthcare Portability and Availability Act (HIPAA)

 

HIPAA protects patient data from getting into the wrong hands.

 

If you fail to enter into a business associate agreement that covers the way third parties (your vendors or partners) manage personal health information (PHI) or electronic PHI (ePHI), you will be fined for failure to protect both entities.

 

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

 

GDPR outlines how a business can store and manage personal information.

 

This regulation’s 72-hour breach notification requirement applies to both data controllers (your business) and data processors (your supply chain). Simply put, you are responsible for notifying your customers even if it is your vendor that has suffered a data breach. Failing to do so will make your business liable to pay penalties.

 

As you can see, failing to adhere to these global compliance regulations will cost you.

 

Isn’t it time to make sure your supply chain is storing data safely and securely?

 

Set Up Your Supply Chain Cybersecurity Risk Management Strategy Now

 

When it comes to supply chain compliance, your inaction could endanger the security of protected data and irreversibly damage your organization’s reputation.

 

In order to avoid violations, penalties and more, you must ensure your supply chain’s commitment to compliance.

 

The good news is that identifying and mitigating supply chain compliance and cybersecurity risks doesn’t have to be chaotic, and you don’t need to do it alone. All you need is the right partner by your side.

 

Reach out to the experts at Third Power IT, Miami’s leading cybersecurity consultants, and let us help you strengthen your commitment to compliance now.

 

Get started at www.ThirdPowerIT.com.

The post Supply Chain Compliance Regulations: How HIPAA And GDPR Affect Your Supply Chain appeared first on Third Power IT – Managed IT Services.

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02.19.21
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The Cost Of A Cybersecurity Breach For Your Florida Based Business Could Be Massive

The digital age comes with so many great advances in technology to make our lives and businesses run more smoothly. Unfortunately, nothing is truly safe. No matter how protected you think your business’ systems and networks are, they can fall prey to hackers and this is where you need to ask yourself, “Do I have the proper cybersecurity standards in place.”

Data breaches and cybersecurity incidents have become common place and they’re becoming increasingly costly. These breaches can expose personal information. No matter the size of your company, it will be costly for you to do through a data breach. In fact, the average cost of a data breach in 2020 is $3.86 million, according to a report from IBM and the Ponemon Institute.

To break it down further, the average data breach costs a company $154 per record. With a database of just 10,000 clients, you have a potential breach of $1,540,000.00 in a single hack. Is your company ready and prepared for such a breach?

When a data breach occurs, your company will deal with varied direct and indirect costs related to time and effort dealing with the breach, lost opportunities, bad publicity, customer churn, and regulatory fines.

Fortunately, costs can be smaller for those companies who are prepared. An analyst at IBM stated that companies who engage in effective cybersecurity practices are seeing significantly reduced costs and those companies who aren’t preparing are facing higher costs.

In fact implementing cybersecurity best practices and remaining compliant with industry standards will not only protect your business but also lower your premiums with many carriers.  You heard correctly!! It can help lower your business insurance premium – another cost saving opportunity.  Of course, the actual cost savings will vary depending on your industry, company size, annual revenue, and the insurance carrier, among other things.

Having the right team behind your cybersecurity is essential in achieving everything that we have talked about here.  If you are not sure where to start, look no further than our Miami Cybersecurity IT Experts here at ThirdPowerIT.  Let us give you a thorough assessment today.

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02.15.21
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Discover The Top Two Insider Threats To Your Business

You might already know about the external risks that threaten the cybersecurity of your business, but are you aware of the insider threats that also exist?

 

In case you didn’t know, data protection regulations require your business to assess all possible threats to the sensitive data your business stores or manages.

 

While most businesses tend to focus their attention on outsider threats, they often overlook internal threats that exist right within their walls.

 

According to Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, 30 percent of data breaches involved internal threats.

 

Unfortunately, all it takes is one disorderly or negligent employee to cause damage to your business.

 

So, how can you prevent this from happening to you?

 

In this blog, we will help you understand the different types of insider threats and how you can create a defense strategy to minimize these threats.

 

First let’s talk about what insider threats are and how they affect the cybersecurity of your business.

 

What Are Insider Threats?

 

Insider threats refer to security risks that originate from within an organization. Essentially, an insider threat involves someone who is a part of your business network or has access to it.

 

An Insider Threat Can Come From:

  • Current employees
  • Former employees
  • Consultants
  • Business partners
  • Board members

 

Insiders with access to your business’s sensitive data can compromise the integrity of the data for any reason, whether it is intentional or not.

 

Now let’s take a look at two types of insider threats you should be aware of.

 

The Main Types of Insider Threats

 

There are two main types of insider threats, and both can do damage to your business if you allow it. Keep reading to find out what they are right now.

 

Insider Threat #1: The Malicious Insider

 

A malicious insider is anyone with legitimate access to your business’ network and sensitive data who decides to exploit the privilege either for financial gain or out of spite.

 

Out of the 4,716 insider incidents that were studied by the Ponemon Institute and IBM in the Cost of Insider Threats: Global Report 2020, 23 percent were related to criminal insiders.

 

The worst part? The report said the annual cost to companies due to criminal insiders is $4.08 million.

 

Insider Threat #2: The Negligent Insider

 

A negligent insider is a regular employee who falls prey to a cyberattack. A hacker then exploits their mistake to compromise your business’ sensitive data.

 

While these employees didn’t intentionally put your cybersecurity at risk, they are considered negligent because they either ignored security policies or weren’t vigilant enough to identify and protect themselves from cyberattacks.

 

As the more common type of insider threat, the report mentioned above found that 63 percent of insider security incidents in 2020 were caused by the negligent insider.

 

The annual cost to companies? A whopping $4.58 million.

 

Is your business at risk of either of these common insider threats?

 

Insider Threats And Your Business: Are You At Risk?

 

Imagine your business suffers a data breach due to one of these insider threats and then gets flagged by a regulator for not taking appropriate measures to avoid such a breach.

 

Not only is your sensitive data compromised, but you’re also facing hefty fines. This could pause your business operations for months, or worse, put you out of business for good.

 

Do you want to ensure this doesn’t happen to you?

 

Partner With Miami IT Experts To Keep Insider Threats Under Check

 

It’s time to make your data protection a priority, especially since cyberthreats have recorded an unprecedented surge during the ‘new normal.’

 

Don’t let an internal data breach harm your business.

 

Allow the cybersecurity experts at Third Power IT to help you monitor all cyber threats – both internal and external – so that you can keep running your business as usual.

 

Visit www.ThirdPowerIT.com to get started now.

 

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12.31.20
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Top 5 Cyber Threats For Businesses In 2020

Did you know that cyber attacks were 400 percent higher in 2020 than the attacks reported before the onset of the coronavirus? The COVID-19 pandemic changed life, business, and cybersecurity as we know it. Unfortunately, as we step into a new year, these cyberthreats are still very real and should be top of mind for you as a business owner. 

First, you should know what a cyber threat is and how it can affect your business. 

 

What is a Cyber Threat?

 A cyber threat is a breach in the protection of your sensitive data.

Cyberthreats come in different shapes and forms. From a simple spyware monitoring your network transactions to a full-fledged ransomware attack that holds all your critical data for a ransom, there are multiple ways your IT network could be compromised. 

When you know the potential risks surrounding your IT infrastructure, you can build a resilient cybersecurity strategy that enhances your IT environment and keeps vulnerabilities at bay.

 Don’t let the top 5 most common cyberthreats happen to you.

 

The Top 5 Most Common Cyber Threats for Businesses

 

#1. Phishing Scams

Phishing emails still pose a major threat to the digital landscape of many business organizations across the globe. COVID-19 communications have provided the perfect cover for these emails to lure unsuspecting users. 

By creating a sense of urgency, these emails might persuade your employees to click on malware links that could steal sensitive data or install malicious viruses inside a computer.

 

#2. Ransomware

Targeted ransomware attacks are increasing every day. It is estimated that a ransomware attack will happen every 11 seconds in 2021. Ransomware attacks hold an organization’s critical data for ransom, and millions of dollars are paid to hackers every year as corporations do not want to risk losing their sensitive data. 

However, there is no guarantee that your files will be secure even after you pay the ransom.

 

#3. Cloud Jacking 

With the cloud becoming a more sophisticated way of storing data, incidents of cloud jacking have become a serious threat. These attacks are mainly executed in two forms:

  1. Injecting malicious code into third-party cloud libraries
  2. Injecting codes directly to the cloud platforms

As estimated by the 2020 Forcepoint Cybersecurity Predictions, a public cloud vendor is responsible for providing the infrastructure while most of the responsibility concerning data security rests with the users. 

So, bear in mind, you are mostly responsible for your data security even when it is on the cloud.

 

#4. Man-in-the-Middle Attack

Did you know hackers can insert themselves in a two-party transaction when it happens on a public network? Once they get access, they can filter and steal your data. 

If your remote working employees use public networks to carry out their official tasks, they are vulnerable to these attacks.

 

#5. Distributed Denial-of-Service Attack

This attack happens when hackers manipulate your normal web traffic and flood the system with resources and traffic that exhaust the bandwidth. As a result, users will not be able to perform their legitimate tasks. 

Once the network is clogged, the attacker will be able to send various botnets to the network and manipulate it.

 

Why You Should Protect Your Business from Cyber Threats

 As you can see, cyber threats are not going away, and an attack can be very costly. It can even cause irreparable damage to your business.

A cyber attack can:

  • Compromise your sensitive data
  • Decrease your brand’s value
  • Lose the trust of your customers
  • Result in hefty fines and penalties 
  • Cause your business to close for good

Don’t let this happen to you. Stop a cyber attack before it starts.

 

Protect Your Data With the Cybersecurity Experts at Third Power IT

The Best Managed IT Services in Miami and South Florida

Every business needs a data protection strategy in order to survive in today’s digital economy. Not only is it recommended, but in many countries, it’s the law. 

Are you ready to ensure your business is protected and compliant?

Team up with a trusted MSP partner who can continuously monitor and secure your IT infrastructure. Reach out to the experts at Third Power IT to discover how you can safeguard your data right now.

Visit www.ThirdPowerIT.com to learn more and connect with us now.

 

Article curated and used by permission.

Data Sources: 

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