When it comes to protecting your business from data breaches in Boston and the surrounding area, many executives think they’ll be okay with a good anti-viral program and managed services. However, there are so many more things that can be done to ensure data privacy security, including employee education and ongoing support. The more you can take the time to learn about preventing a cybersecurity vulnerability, the easier it will be to establish smarter practices designed to protect sensitive activities. This not only helps to safeguard company data and information, but also helps to eliminate situations that might put company executives at risk.
Protecting Personal Data
While a lot of the focus is on corporate data, including financial documents, contracts, client lists, consumer payment information, and other related identify details, it is crucial to also consider the personal data of your company’s executives and other public employees. Whether they bring home a corporate laptop to work on spreadsheets over the weekend or travel around the globe making deals with foreign organizations, it pays to go the extra mile to increase network defenses to prevent data breaches in Boston and the surrounding areas. This all goes hand in hand, as the personal details of each executive with your company can directly impact the safety and security of your organization, as a whole.
Most executives have access to sensitive information about the company, making them big targets of hackers who might be looking to steal contacts, corporate data, or to pass on malware for cybercriminal activity. If your staff is placing personal data on their company computer, or if they are using personal and professional email client access via the same machine, they could at risk. Digital data warehouses store all sorts of details, well beyond the basic address, phone number, relatives, and other pertinent information. These details can be used for social engineering hacks, such as phishing and spear-phishing attempts, as well as for selling information to the highest bidder. Think about all of the data you share on a daily basis, it won’t take long for people to have personal details, such as your height and weight, anniversaries, birthdays, pet names, and more, which can be used to gain access to your accounts.
Data Brokers, Digital Data Warehouses, and You
It is essential to understand how the whole data collection industry works so you can know how to protect your own personal information to protect data privacy security. Data is legally collected via individuals and organizations known as data brokers. This happens much more frequently than most people realize, which is why it can impact corporate cybersecurity and ultimately result in data breaches in Boston and the surrounding area. Every single time you interact with a computer, including your desktop, laptop, smartphone, smart television, or even just a barcode at the local grocery store – data is collected about you and stored in what is known as digital data warehouses.
While other countries have limitations as to the amount of data that companies are allowed to collect and how it can be used, the United States has no such laws, leaving its citizens vulnerable to data privacy security attacks. Remember that the people who collect this data are known as data brokers, which reveals what they do with the information that they have on you and countless others – they sell it to anyone who will pay for it. It doesn’t matter the intentions of the buyer, which means that the personal data of your executives – those with complete access to sensitive company data – could be sold to cybercriminals who will use it to personalize phishing attacks and create business email compromise situations to make them even more successful.
What’s Bigger Than Phishing? Whaling!
When it comes to company executives, particularly those on a board or at the top of the chain of command, the cybercriminals no longer call it phishing, but whaling. Phishing is for the little “fish” at the bottom of the company, an easy target to gain entry into the network. However, the big executives are the “whales,” the big fish at the top that wield power and credibility. The criminal impersonates an executive via email and simply uses the communication to ask for money, login information, and other essential details that can be used to achieve their goals. Protect your company, safeguard your executives, and put a stopper on all cybersecurity vulnerability issues to prevent data breaches in Boston and the surrounding area when you contact Synivate at 617-848-1248. We can assist you with data privacy security and help you prevent your details from ending up at digital data warehouses.