The advancement of technology has brought major changes to the corporate scenario in some business segments. The use of digital mechanisms has automated various operations, improving operational efficiency and reducing costs.
However, this intelligence has been used not only to enhance productivity , but to damage various business branches that make use of technology allied to the internet and usually do not worry with data security.
The lack of sensitivity of companies with the theme makes new and faster attacks and strategies for theft of confidential information structured by digital criminals, known as hackers.
Some business segments should be extra careful when it comes to information security.
Thus, in this article, we will list the most sensitive segments and the reasons why they deserve the most care.
Financial
Nothing better than starting with the most obvious or more common when talking about security, especially data: financial.
In the segment, some branches fall as:
- Bank branches
- Financial and credit companies
- Brokerages
- Lottery
- Transportation of values and documents
- Accounting Companies
We can say that they are all branches who care a lot about physical safety, armed security and bulletproof doors, but few with digital security.
Financial segment companies are targets much coveted by digital criminals for various reasons:
- Financial transactions being executed daily
- Handle bank information such as passwords, registration data and billing
- Use unified systems full of sensitive data
- Make use of internet daily for many important tasks
In this environment it is common to identify the ease and practicality of carrying out bank transactions on the internet. However, it has become increasingly common for hackers in attacks on companies in this field. Last year, including Banco Capital One in Whashington in the United States, suffered an attack that exposed data from 100 million credit card customers and bank accounts.
Therefore, it is indispensable that the inpeds of this segment have redoubled data security concerns.
Human resources
As with virtually all business segments today, computerized systems improve team productivity. In HR companies this process becomes fundamental, needing to organize and document all information regarding contracts of employees and client companies.
See a list of documents that HR companies normally have and which are targets of criminals:
- Negotiation documents and financial successes
- Specific agreements and terms with companies and employees
- Proof of receipt of benefits, taxes
- Copies of company and employees documents
- Team frequency control documents
- Occupational Safety Control Documents
By handling such important information, a well -structured policy of information security is critical, avoiding the loss of sensitive documents such as these and also future problems with legislation and labor rights of client companies.
An example of attack later this year was the Brazilian HR Consulting Company, a job ad manager, called Catho, which reached login data, full name, CPF, address, email, date of birth and password of 195 customers.
Industry
Large -scale production companies, or using equipment and systems connected to the internet for industrial production daily, are subject to interrupting all their production if they undergo a cyber attack.
In an article on our blog, we talked about the Honda Motor attack this year, where the multinational had to interrupt its production due to ransomware.
Imagine a small industry with considerable demand, stopping all your production, delaying your delivery deadlines and taking all your employees out of their work activities due to a cyber attack. Depending on the type of attack, and the importance of the company's attack sector could inactivate production indefinitely.
Depending on technology so that your work can be done in an organized and planned manner, industrial companies are extremely sensitive to information security, and should worry daily about keeping their data protected.
Real estate
Real estate companies do their job daily with real estate, owners, tenants and other companies. Some of the most relevant information is:
- Real estate rental
- Real Estate Sales
- Documentation Control and Selling Processes
- Documentation control and lease processes
- Review and preparation of lease and sale contracts
- Selling and Rental Value Evaluation
- Real Estate Delivery Survey
Usually these data and documents are filed digitally, but in some cases they are purchasing documents that can exceed $ 1 million. Losing or undergoing a kidnapping can stop the company's activities and also cause major problems with old contracts, or future changes.
A good example of attack was the website of the Fortune 500, First American Financial Corp, which leaked hundreds of millions of mortgage -related documents since 2003 last year.
Health
Patient data protection and privacy is a fundamental aspect for any public or private health institution.
In 2016, the Presbyterian Medical Center of Hollywood suffered a virtual attack and had to pay $ 17,000 to recover access to data from the systems used in the organization.
In such cases, care may be followed, but the documentary organization and the extra generated work must have made all the processes that should be done digitally, chaotic.
Companies and health centers should be very concerned with information security, after all, unlike other business segments, are part of one of the few who rarely has their services interrupted.
Public sector
Due to its importance, the public sector will always be the target of attacks, which requires greater care with data security.
Tax reception sectors for example have a degree of data importance greater than other sectors, as it involves the economy of the public power.
City halls for example have data from IPTU, electricity invoices and water. Attacks to public databases are usually catastrophic in case of data loss.
Public sectors usually have less concern about data security, so they are constant targets of cyber criminals.
In May this year, some sites from the state government of Mato Grosso do Sul suffered attacks by hackers. According to the invader, he obtained access to the systems with “weak password” of authorized user.
How to prevent data security problems
Perhaps some tips may seem simple, but as we have seen weekly in our newsletter , attacks on companies usually happen by basic errors from employees' own . Some business segments will surely need more sophisticated protection systems consistent with the importance of the data stored by them. However, some relatively simple methods can prevent many problems, as we will see below.
Your Internet Security Test
We believe that the first step in maintaining your company's data security is to identify what are the most fragile points of your internet network. In other words, you can do a security test on the internet, identifying which website categories are free for access.
In the test will be made requests for access to various sites that are within the categories considered insecure, from your internet connection, such as:
- Phishing and online fraud
- Malware and Spyware
- Access Anonymitors
- Drugs and alcoholic beverages
- Games and bets
- Pornography and Nudity
- Violence, terrorism and racism
9 data security tips
Also, to help companies, we have listed below some basic tips that can help companies in most information security related problems:
- Emails with offers, “banks” or “government entities” should be careful as they may be camouflaged with malware.
- Install the good and basic anti-virus , choosing a paid-preferably software that offers complete protection to your system as needed.
- Keep operating systems and software always updated. Remember that old versions are more vulnerable to suffering cybers.
- It is essential to maintain a good firewall , avoiding attacks from several of the attacks above.
- Keep passwords strong and safe . Make a periodic change of your passwords and avoid it on computers where there is high user turnover.
- Make regular and correct backup Always keeping an updated copy of all your data is essential and will make it easier if you suffer an attack.
- For home office teams making remote access, it is indispensable to use a VPN connection so that all these access to the company's sensitive data is safe and controlled.
- Block access to websites and applications outside the scope of work, avoiding access to websites that usually carry great chances of infection and cyber attacks.
- Have solutions and tools for the IT industry always updated and consistent with the company's needs, facilitating processes and identifying problems as automated as possible, making the time of the responsible professional more optimized, eliminating low -important tasks and prioritizing the very important ones, such as data security.
Conclusion
After this article, it is interesting to highlight that the segments that have not been cited here should also worry about data security, after all, listed, only have more sensitive information than some other areas, but all business information has its importance internally.
Therefore, it is essential to maintain preventive measures involving equipment, systems and employees to create an information security culture in the company and avoid cyber attacks.
This way I hope I have helped you and your company realize the importance of the theme and also the dangers that can be found on the internet in all business segments.
To the next!
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