Data leaks protection for your company – Musato Technologies
loader image

We enable business and digital transformation decisions through the delivery of cutting-edge ICT solutions and products...





Get inspired…
  
  
  

Data leaks often come from within your business

“Employees can say, ‘Security isn’t my thing,’ and expect their IT department to take charge, but it shouldn’t be that way,” says Duquette. – Data leaks

Business owners need to take the time to get everyone thinking about cybersecurity—from the cleaning staff right up to the top executives, including the company president, he recommends.

Consider the consequences of your company’s information being stolen and have measures in place to deal with any breach, he says.

He suggests starting by asking a series of questions: “What is it that you are trying to protect? Who has access to it and what controls have been put in place? Would it be very damaging if the information got out?”

Your business could be increasingly vulnerable

“I would say that these threats are actually increasing for small to mid-sized businesses because a lot of these companies hold very important information about clients,” Duquette says.

Data leaks

Cybercriminals, whether they’re your employees or hackers in a distant location, will also steal financial information.

“You have a lot of start-ups with high-value intellectual property (IP) that people would love to get their hands on,” Duquette adds.

6 tips to protect your against company’s data leaks

  1. Conduct regular cybersecurity audits
    Businesses should have regular cybersecurity audits to identify what are the gaps, strengths, and weaknesses of the company’s data management procedures, says Sem Ponnambalam, co-founder and president of Xahive, a cybersecurity company in Ottawa.
  2. Know what to do in case of a breach
    Develop a cybersecurity protocol to define what steps need to be taken to deal with a breach, says Ponnambalam. That includes a policy to notify your clients, vendors, and the authorities immediately. You may also want to notify your bank.
  3. Back up your data daily
    Companies should back up their information daily, not just in the cloud, but also on a hard drive. Installing regular software updates is another good habit, according to Ponnambalam.
  4. Know who has access and why
    When an employee leaves, make sure they no longer have any access to your company’s information by resetting passwords. Have a policy on who has access to your company’s sensitive information and know-how often it’s being accessed and why
  5. Encrypt your communication, including email
    Ponnambalam says your communications, which include any personally identifiable information or personal health information, should be encrypted to protect their content. Encryption keys should not be stored on servers because they can be unlocked.
  6. Buy cybersecurity insurance
    Cybersecurity insurance can help mitigate losses from a variety of cyber incidents, says Ponnambalam. They also show that you take the threat seriously.

What to do if your company is breached

Businesses must now report any breach involving personal information under its control, including with a service provider, to the federal Privacy Commissioner. This applies if it is reasonable to believe that the breach creates a real risk of significant harm to the individuals involved.

Cybercrimes can take many forms

Here are other types of cybercrimes targeting businesses:

Malware and Ransomware

Cyber thieves may not be as interested in stealing your company’s information as they are in trying to get you to pay money or ransom to get it back. Ransomware is a software that blocks access to computers or files until a ransom is paid.

Phishing

Phishing is still a threat to entrepreneurs Criminals will sometimes use chat bots or email scripts to obtain your personal financial or health information to steal your money or identity, or will sell it on the black market at a premium to other criminals looking to use your personal information for identity theft.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

DoS disrupts access to your web properties by flooding them with traffic. This makes your website and services unavailable to legitimate users. It can be used as a means of cyber extortion.

Rainbow Tables

Sometimes cybercriminals don’t want to attack their targets directly, instead they want to breach a server and take everyone’s information at once, says Ponnambalam. They will do this with rainbow tables, which essentially is a method of looking at password algorithms and gaining access to an entire server in a matter of minutes compromising every user of that service. Contact Musato Technologies to learn more about our ICT services and solutions.

Article by BDC

Gideon E. M
Author: Gideon E. M

Gideon Ebonde M. is the CEO and Chief Software Architect at Musato Technologies. He is experienced Software developer with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. He has a strong engineering professional skilled in Mobile Application Development, Enterprise Software, AI, Robotics, IoT, Servers, Cloud and business application. He is an accomplished DevOps software engineer and a visionary computer scientist and engineer.