Technological advancements have brought significant changes to the corporate landscape in several business segments. The use of digital mechanisms has automated various operations, improving operational efficiency and reducing costs.
However, this intelligence is being used not only to boost productivity , but also to harm various business sectors that use technology combined with the internet and that typically do not worry about data security.
attacks and strategies for stealing confidential information, orchestrated by cybercriminals known as "hackers," are emerging at an increasingly rapid pace
Some business sectors need to exercise extra caution when it comes to information security.
Therefore, in this article, we will list the most sensitive segments and the reasons why they deserve more care.
Financial
There's nothing better than starting with the most obvious or common thing when talking about security, especially data security: financial security.
This segment includes several branches such as:
- Bank branches
- Financial institutions and credit companies
- Brokers
- Lottery outlets
- Transport of valuables and documents
- Accounting firms
We can say that all of these sectors are very concerned with physical security, armed guards, and bulletproof doors, but few with digital security.
Companies in the financial sector are highly sought-after targets for cybercriminals for several reasons:
- Financial transactions being executed daily.
- They handle banking information such as passwords, registration data, and billing information.
- They use unified systems filled with sensitive data.
- They use the internet daily for many important tasks.
In this environment, it's common to see the ease and convenience of conducting banking transactions online. However, it has become increasingly common for hackers to target companies in this sector. Last year, for example, Capital One bank in Washington, D.C., suffered an attack that exposed the data of 100 million credit card and bank account customers.
Therefore, it is essential that companies in this sector have heightened concerns about data security.
Human Resources
As in virtually all business sectors today, computerized systems improve team productivity. In HR companies, this process becomes fundamental, requiring the organization and documentation of all information related to employee and client company contracts.
Here is a list of documents that HR companies typically possess and that are targeted by criminals:
- Documents relating to negotiations and financial agreements
- Specific agreements and terms with companies and employees.
- Proof of receipt of benefits, taxes
- Copies of company and employee documents.
- Team attendance control documents
- Workplace safety control documents
Given the importance of handling this information, a well-structured information security policy is essential to prevent the loss of sensitive documents like these, as well as future problems with legislation and labor rights of client companies.
One example of an attack this year was against the Brazilian HR consulting firm Catho, which manages a job posting website and compromised the login data, full name, CPF (Brazilian tax identification number), address, email, date of birth, and password of 195 clients.
Industry
Companies that manufacture on a large scale, or that use equipment and systems connected to the internet for daily industrial production, are at risk of having to halt their entire production if they suffer a cyberattack.
In a post , we discussed the attack on Honda Motor this year, where the multinational company had to halt production due to ransomware.
Imagine a small industry with considerable demand halting all production, delaying delivery deadlines, and removing all employees from their work activities due to a cyberattack. Depending on the type of attack and the importance of the company's attack sector, it could paralyze production indefinitely.
Because they rely on technology to carry out their work in an organized and predictable manner, companies in the industrial sector are extremely sensitive to information security and must be concerned daily with keeping their data protected.
Real Estate
Real estate companies work daily with data on properties, owners, tenants, and other businesses. Some of the most relevant information includes:
- Real estate rental intermediary
- Real estate sales intermediary
- Documentation control and sales processes
- Documentation control and rental processes
- Review and drafting of lease and sales contracts.
- Valuation of sale and rental value
- Property handover inspection
Normally, this data and these documents are archived digitally; however, in some cases, they involve documents related to purchases that can exceed R$1 million. Losing or suffering a data breach can disrupt company operations and also cause major problems with old contracts or future changes.
A good example of a cyberattack in the real estate industry was the website of the Fortune 500 mortgage insurance giant, First American Financial Corp., which leaked hundreds of millions of documents related to mortgage transactions dating back to 2003, last year.
Health
Protecting patient data and privacy is a fundamental aspect for any healthcare institution, whether public or private.
In 2016, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center suffered a cyberattack and had to pay $17,000 to regain access to the data on the systems used by the organization.
In such cases, services may still be able to continue, but the document organization and extra work generated must have turned all the processes that should have been done digitally into chaos.
Companies and healthcare centers should be very concerned about information security, after all, unlike other business segments, they are part of one of the few sectors that rarely has its services interrupted.
Public Sector
Due to its importance, the public sector will always be a target for attacks, which demands greater care with data security.
Sectors that collect taxes, for example, have a higher degree of data importance than other sectors, as they involve the public sector economy.
Municipal governments, for example, have data on property taxes, electricity and water bills. Attacks on public databases are usually catastrophic, in the event of data loss.
Public sectors typically have less concern for data security, which is why they are constant targets for cybercriminals.
In May of this year, some websites belonging to the government of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul suffered hacker attacks
How to prevent data security problems
Some tips may seem simple, but as we've seen weekly in our information security newsletter employees themselves . Some business segments will certainly need more sophisticated protection systems commensurate with the importance of the data they store. However, some relatively simple methods can prevent many problems, as we will see below.
Test your internet security.
We believe that the first step in maintaining your company's data security is to identify the weakest points in your internet network. In other words, you can perform an internet security test, identifying which categories of websites are freely accessible.
The test will involve access requests to various websites that fall into categories considered insecure, using your internet connection, such as:
- Phishing and online fraud
- Malware and spyware
- Access anonymizers
- Drugs and alcoholic beverages
- Games and betting
- Pornography and nudity
- Violence, terrorism and racism
9 data security tips
In addition, to help companies, we have listed below some basic tips that can help companies with most information security-related problems:
- Emails containing offers from "banks" or "government entities" should raise suspicion, as they may be disguised as malware.
- Install a good, basic antivirus program , preferably choosing a paid software that offers complete protection for your system, according to your needs.
- Keep operating systems and software always up to date. Remember that older versions are more vulnerable to cyberattacks.
- It is essential to keep a good firewall always active, avoiding attacks from several of the attacks mentioned above.
- Maintain strong and secure passwords . Change your passwords periodically and avoid saving them on computers with high user turnover.
- Make backups of your files. Always keeping an up-to-date copy of all your data is essential and will make things much easier if you suffer an attack.
- For teams working from home and accessing data remotely, using a VPN connection to ensure that all access to sensitive company data is secure and controlled.
- Block access to websites and applications outside the scope of work, preventing access to sites that typically carry a high risk of infection and cyberattacks.
- Have solutions and tools that meet the company's needs, facilitating processes and identifying problems in the most automated way possible, optimizing the time of the responsible professional, eliminating low-importance tasks and prioritizing those of great importance, such as data security.
Conclusion
In closing this article, it is important to highlight that the segments not mentioned here should also be concerned with data security. After all, those listed simply hold more sensitive information than some other areas, but all business information is important internally.
Therefore, it is essential to maintain preventive measures involving equipment, systems, and employees to create a culture of information security within the company and prevent cyberattacks.
In this way, I hope I have helped you and your company to understand the importance of the topic and also the dangers that can be found on the internet in all business segments.
To the next!
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