Cybersecurity insights, compliance guides, and industry analysis from our experts.
Request ConsultationFollowing the implementation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) earlier this year, privacy and security regulations are taking the worldby storm. The California Consumer Privacy Act, petitioned and signed June 2018, will be put into effect on January 1, 2020. Despite its smaller geographical scope, the law will have significant effect on many businesses.
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) offers a messaging service which allows financial institutions around the world to send and receive information and instructions about financial transactions securely.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation’s (GDPR) came into effect on 25 May 2018. The GDPR law has triggered several immediate changes. The new regulation safeguards security and privacy rights for users. GDPR has forced companies to change their practices on data gathering and processing in many ways.
Application security needs more attention as there is an increasing usage of applicationson smart devices. While security has seen improvements over the years, applications still have vulnerabilities that can expose them to spyware, keyloggers, viruses, worms, and other harmful scripts.
Conducting business online opens several opportunities but also poses risks. Earlier this year, hundreds of companies had data breaches, exposing sensitive information of clients and employees.
The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) promotes the security and privacy of employee health information. HIPAA seeks to facilitate efficient and effective electronic transfer of healthcare information between healthcare facilities as well as protect patients’ privacy. The Health and Human Services Department (HHS) was mandated to develop with security standards that they issued in 2003. The resulting health security standards rule gives patients rights over their health information and set standards on who can access it. The act further articulates precautions that all healthcare providers must take to protect and secure electronically collected health information. Agencies, organizations, and individuals classified as covered entities must comply with HIPAA.
A data breach may be viewed as the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration or unauthorized disclosure or, access to data . Over the years, thesecurity broadcasts are generally replete with numerous incidences of data breaches across the globe. Therefore, it is little surprise that 1 in 4 business have experiencedthis type of incident . The significant financial impact is also unmistakable as the total average cost is estimated to be 3.62 milliondollars, which equates to in excess of$300,000 dollars .
The number of reported incidences of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) continue to rise over the last few years. While there is no precise statistics, which may be attributable to the limited awareness of these attacks or reluctance to share attack incidences, it is recognized that many organizations in various countries have fallen victims to APT attacks. Their knownvictims include global technology firms, financial services, military and defense entities, where the threat actors or attackers are usually state sponsored groups and cyber mercenaries.
Malware continues to be one of the top factors contributing to network compromise which may eventually lead to data breach. Malware attack has the costliest impact on organizations with an average total cost amounting to$2.4 million .This means close to $7,000 per day or $200,000 per month is incurred by victims across the globe. Moreover, these attacks cause significant damage to an organization’s infrastructure by compromising data, preventing or slowing down the running of computers and resulting in the loss of vital information.
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