Cybersecurity is now a part of our daily lives. Not a day goes by without concern over someone hacking your computer, stealing your financial data, or accessing your social media profile. The primary fear comes from monetary loss, but that is beginning to evolve as well. What if a hacker got hold of your healthcare data? Or intercepted some proprietary business files that you were working on? What if a criminal was able to access your company’s system and hold the files for ransom? The stakes are much higher than the inconvenience of canceling a few credit cards and repairing your credit record.
These are all real life scenarios that have the potential to manifest themselves in your daily life. Hackers are getting more sophisticated and doing their homework online. It’s possible for them to study your social media profile and send you a highly specific request that appears to be part of ordinary operations. These are designed to occur when you’re busy and may not be expecting a cyber-attack. Putting you on the front lines of protecting your organization from a major security breach.
Unless you’re in the IT department, defending the company’s data is most likely not in your job description. Whether explicit or implied, the reality is that you are ultimately responsible. Allowing a data breach to occur because of personal negligence could result in any number of negative outcomes. Being educated on the methods and tactics used by cyber criminals can only help in this regard. The reality is that you are the initial defense from preventing your organization from cyber-attacks.
For further information on the evolution of intellectual property protection, download Sparton’s whitepaper Cybersecurity and Design: Managing New Risks and Requirements.
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