Data breaches occur every day around the world. They happen to large multinational companies and mom and pop shops around the corner. They can happen any time anywhere without notice. This is the world we live in; a connected world that allows us to reach around the globe and communicate in real time almost anywhere. With privilege comes risk and our ability to utilize the gift of instant communication is being threatened daily by those who seek to compromise our security and steal what is most precious to us, our data!

“The next Pearl Harbor will be Cyber! It’s a cheap way to attack! No bombers or submarines needed. We must do much more to protect our infrastructure from attack. ” – Senator Angus King, Maine

The idea that we must protect our businesses from a dark nefarious shadowy threat that lurks beneath the surface of the Internet paints a scary picture of the threat we all face. In reality many of the criminal organizations that threaten us are operating in the clear light of day. They have employees, business plans, and goals.

They run their business just like you run yours. You plan, strategize, and work to grow your company, so do they. The difference is, if they are successful you are out of business. It’s a cyber war that is happening every day and you are in the middle of it all.

What is often lost on business owners is that the cyber war isn’t being fought for YOUR data; it is being fought for your CUSTOMER’S data. It’s not about YOU! It’s about your CUSTOMERS! This is the biggest misunderstanding involving cyber awareness and protection. Yes, you must protect your business against cyber breaches and attacks but you are not protecting yourself, you are protecting your customers! If you do not have the proper protection and you expose your customers’ data to cyber criminals, odds are you will lose your business. Gary Miller, GEM Strategy Management with the Denver Post recently wrote an article stating that, “60% of all small businesses that suffer a data breach are out of business within six months.” Building proper cyber security infrastructure isn’t just a job for the government or large multinational companies. To be protected we must all participate in securing each other. Remember, we are connected. Being connected means that we are all responsible for each other. Shared responsibility in cyber security is a must. In 2013 Target Retail Stores were the victim of a huge data breach. It cost them millions of dollars to mitigate the loss. According to the Wall Street Journal blog, it was an HVAC vendor doing work for Target that caused the breach. A cyber-criminal hacked an HVAC Company and then followed the connection to Target. The rest is history.

Target’s customers were breached by the thousands. Personally identifiable information was lost and Targets customers identities were lost to the dark web where some of them were sold for profit. So, the next time you think about protecting your business from cyber criminals, think about your friends, neighbors, business associates, and customers. They are all connected to you. They owe it to you and you owe it to them to be protected. What’s next and what can you do? Because we are all connected The Tek has developed a simple 3 step plan of protection. By following this simple plan you can do your part to protect yourself, your business, and your customers.

06-28-17-Is Not abou...