Cybersecurity Essential in the Digital Age | Vigilance matters at the individual, corporate, and government level

While two-factor sign-ons and constant requirements to change passwords may be tedious, these components of work and personal systems are essential and the most familiar approaches to cybersecurity. Keeping individual accounts safe is important, but a fraction of the risk facing organizations globally.

Big Data – huge datasets that grow continually – are most common in governments, large businesses and organizations. Analyzing their data can help identify trends in systems and individual behavior. In many cases, this data is used strategically to solve problems and identify trends across many fields. Datasets may provide private companies refined resources for marketing or capital growth, help retailers optimize sales, and enable businesses to identify customer behavioral trends. But they can support public programs as well. During the opioid crisis, the U.S. government was able to study data on opioid-related deaths to determine where and to what extent to provide aid.

While the opportunities for organizational growth and effectiveness using big data are significant, there is risk. A breach of these massive data sets can provide opportunities for criminals to access personal information through cyberattacks, which could include identity theft, the introduction of malware, website defacement, intellectual property theft, and more, which makes security critical.

Protecting data can feel like an arms race, but it is one that individuals and organizations must do the their best to win. Organizations’ in-house data security can include technical systems – open-source hardware, attribute-based encryption, and well-maintained audit logs. But building and maintaining an organization culture that supports cybersecurity is essential as well.

 Leadership should send a strong message regarding best practices related to security and regular reminders — perhaps in the form of annual trainings — for employees at every level. Regular reporting on security threats and available resources are important reinforcements for busy people focused on current priorities. Helping employees understand the ramifications of breaches on a regular basis will help to keep cybersecurity front of mind.

Because of this, the demand for cybersecurity professionals is growing and more organizations are managing at least some components of their cybersecurity in-house. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the demand for cybersecurity professionals will increase 35% by 2031. While their salaries are a significant commitment – an engineer’s annual income is $92,000 on average and an information security analyst, who plans and carries out security measures to protect an organization’s computer networks and systems, is $83,000 – their roles are critical. Engineers protect systems and information and deploy countermeasures in a breach. Information security analysts, who identify false alarms, intrusion attempts, monitor system users, and permissions and continually enhance security systems through system design and upgrades, earn salaries over $100,000, but investing in cybersecurity can be a valuable investment.

Compared to the cost of a data breach, cybersecurity can be a bargain. Breaches may include ransom demands, which are sometimes as high as six figures. Customer trust and loyalty are affected, and there is lost revenue and perhaps lost clients. Organizationally, the downtime can cause a significant loss of productivity.

One hundred years ago information security may have consisted of safes, locked doors, and file cabinets. While information storage, and its potential threats, have become virtual, security systems, employment, and plans are critical to organizational health. Implementing cybersecurity safeguards is valuable corporate security in a digital age.