Guarding Against Breaches Means Investing In Endpoint Threat Detection
Written By Charles Leaver Ziften CEO
Protecting against data breaches is a difficult task, but absolutely necessary to succeed in the current business climate. Because of the sheer amount of cybercriminals waiting in the wings to steal credit card information, personal details, and other important data from customers, businesses need to be aware of the high amount of threats to information online, and take steps to prevent it. Utilizing endpoint threat detection and response software is one of the best ways to take care of this problem, as it can allow for an easy way to fight against a variety of different exploits hackers can use to gain access to a company network.
In order to create a better, more hack-proof system, developing a strong sense of back-end security is important. The New York Times’ article on protecting data touches on a few, very important measures that can make a big difference in keeping customer information from falling into the wrong hands. Some of the measures the article touches on include using point-of-sale systems for customer transactions only, dedicating one computer to all financial business, and keeping software up to date. These are smart tips because they protect against several ways that hackers like to use to breach systems. A PoS system that doesn’t connect to the Internet except to transmit data to bank servers is safer than one that isn’t so limited because it reduces the risk of a virus getting onto the network through the Internet. Making one computer the single access point for financial transactions and nothing else can keep viruses or other malicious surveillance software from getting in. In this way, a company can greatly protect its customers while not actually taking on that many additional expenses.
Safety and security should come first
Property Casualty 360 has a similar list of recommendations, including automating patches to business systems, using encryption on all devices, enforcing strong passwords, and keeping an eagle-eyed approach to email. Encrypting information, especially financial information, is highly important. It is possible for a hacker to get financial information stored as plain text very easily without the use of encryption measures. Of course, strong endpoint threat response systems should be used to deal with this threat, but security, like clothes in Autumn, is best when layered. Using several different techniques at once exponentially reduces the chance of a given organization’s data from being leaked, which can, over time, make it much easier to protect against any sort of damage that might be done.
Many breaches occur not when a piece of malware has successfully planted itself on a server, but when an employee’s email account contains an insecure password. Dictionary words, like “dog” or “password,” should never be used. They are easy to hack and to break in to, and they can lead to entire stores of data being stolen. Similarly, an employee accidentally sending a list of clients to someone without checking their intended recipients list can wind up sending a whole fleet of information out to the wrong person, effortlessly causing enormous data loss. This kind of leak needs to be prevented by solid training.
In response to the myriad of threats out there currently, the best way to deal with them is to utilize strong endpoint threat response software in order to keep from losing important data. Using a large variety of different security techniques in order to protect against all incoming attacks in a smart way to make sure that your organization is able to weather a variety of blows. This type of attitude can keep an organization from being sunk by the large amount of attacks currently hitting businesses.
Protecting against data breaches is a difficult task, but absolutely necessary to succeed in the current business climate. Because of the sheer amount of cybercriminals waiting in the wings to steal credit card information, personal details, and other important data from customers, businesses need to be aware of the high amount of threats to information online, and take steps to prevent it. Utilizing endpoint threat detection and response software is one of the best ways to take care of this problem, as it can allow for an easy way to fight against a variety of different exploits hackers can use to gain access to a company network.
In order to create a better, more hack-proof system, developing a strong sense of back-end security is important. The New York Times’ article on protecting data touches on a few, very important measures that can make a big difference in keeping customer information from falling into the wrong hands. Some of the measures the article touches on include using point-of-sale systems for customer transactions only, dedicating one computer to all financial business, and keeping software up to date. These are smart tips because they protect against several ways that hackers like to use to breach systems. A PoS system that doesn’t connect to the Internet except to transmit data to bank servers is safer than one that isn’t so limited because it reduces the risk of a virus getting onto the network through the Internet. Making one computer the single access point for financial transactions and nothing else can keep viruses or other malicious surveillance software from getting in. In this way, a company can greatly protect its customers while not actually taking on that many additional expenses.
Safety and security should come first
Property Casualty 360 has a similar list of recommendations, including automating patches to business systems, using encryption on all devices, enforcing strong passwords, and keeping an eagle-eyed approach to email. Encrypting information, especially financial information, is highly important. It is possible for a hacker to get financial information stored as plain text very easily without the use of encryption measures. Of course, strong endpoint threat response systems should be used to deal with this threat, but security, like clothes in Autumn, is best when layered. Using several different techniques at once exponentially reduces the chance of a given organization’s data from being leaked, which can, over time, make it much easier to protect against any sort of damage that might be done.
Many breaches occur not when a piece of malware has successfully planted itself on a server, but when an employee’s email account contains an insecure password. Dictionary words, like “dog” or “password,” should never be used. They are easy to hack and to break in to, and they can lead to entire stores of data being stolen. Similarly, an employee accidentally sending a list of clients to someone without checking their intended recipients list can wind up sending a whole fleet of information out to the wrong person, effortlessly causing enormous data loss. This kind of leak needs to be prevented by solid training.
In response to the myriad of threats out there currently, the best way to deal with them is to utilize strong endpoint threat response software in order to keep from losing important data. Using a large variety of different security techniques in order to protect against all incoming attacks in a smart way to make sure that your organization is able to weather a variety of blows. This type of attitude can keep an organization from being sunk by the large amount of attacks currently hitting businesses.