Misconceptions about cybersecurity: Information security problems in companies

Many companies, especially SMEs, believe that they are not the main target of cybercriminals because they do not have much information, so their investment in cybersecurity is minimal or virtually nonexistent, relying only on an endpoint or antivirus solution and this does not mean being exempt from cyberattacks.

With the years that we have been working alongside SMEs and large corporations, we have realized the wrong thoughts about cybersecurity that they have, such as:

• If I don’t have a phishing problem, why do I need an anti-phishing solution?

• I already have an antivirus, my company is protected.

• I have no interesting data, I will not be a victim of data leakage.

And many other erroneous thoughts that we will discuss throughout this article to help you solve the IT security issues that companies suffer from.

What misconceptions about cybersecurity do companies have?

My company is too small, we are of no interest to cybercriminals

Cybercriminals don’t care if you are big or small, because they are not really interested in the content of the information they steal, but that the company has liquidity to be able to pay a ransom for the recovery of such information.

Cybercriminals are driven by money, not by the quality of the data, and by the simple fact of being a company, they know that your information is valuable to you, therefore, it is necessary to protect it regardless of the size of your company, even if you are self-employed and work on your own.

I already have an antivirus, what else do I need?

An antivirus is not synonymous with absolute security. Yes, antivirus helps to prevent malware from entering your company, but they are not infallible. Therefore, it is advisable that they are supported by other solutions such as firewalls, anti-phishing solutions, backup copies, credential managers, etc. In this way, you will considerably increase the IT security of your system by solving security breaches and possible vulnerabilities in your IT infrastructure.

Malware and types of cyber-attacks are evolving. There are many attacks known as “zero day” that are new and therefore, antivirus software is not yet able to protect your system from them. Monitoring and updating your systems, as well as all your security policies, is essential for your company to be protected.

We have solid security policies

Yes, having security policies in place is critical, however, these should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

A security policy does not only mean establishing that the password changes every 3 months (what many companies understand as a security policy), but making clear how data is treated, where it should be treated, how to treat confidential information, which accounts you should use to access X sites, how you should exchange information with internal and external, when you should change the password, what security programs you need on a computer before treating information, if you can treat information from your personal mobile or not and if you do it in what way, etc.

We block IP addresses from countries with high risk of cyber-attacks, everything under control.

Blocking specific IP addresses in some regions can bring a sense of false security, as in reality cybercriminals host malware in many countries with hotspots including the United States, the Netherlands and the rest of Europe.

We have information protected with backups

Backup copies are essential so that in case of cyber-attacks, you can recover the information immediately, without falling into the blackmail of cybercriminals, which also does not ensure that you are going to recover the information.

However, if the backups are connected to the network, they are also within the reach of cybercriminals and are vulnerable to being encrypted, deleted or disabled in a ransomware attack.

To this end, we recommend the 3-2-1 Backup Rule:

• Keep at least 3 copies of your data
• Store copies on two different media
• Saves a backup copy offsite

We have post-incident response teams that can recover my data after a ransomware attack

Perhaps in another era this would have been possible, but nowadays this is highly unlikely, because cybercriminals make far fewer mistakes and the encryption process has improved. In addition, automatic backups, such as the snapshots made by Windows, are also deleted by most modern ransomware and overwrite the original data stored on the disk, making it impossible to recover.

Have you also had any of these thoughts or do you truly believe that your company is protected? If so, we offer you a free 20-minute audit to analyze your company and see if you really have the right cybersecurity solutions for your business.

Request it by clicking on this link.