Data Protection and Cyber Security

Data leaks in companies can lead to financial losses and damage to reputation. Information directly related to accountancy is one of the most vulnerable in terms of leaks: financial documents, reporting, business plans, contracts, prices, salaries, personal data of employees. Thus, be attentive if you don't want to lose clients, or what's worse, lose your business. Today, we will consider the weaknesses in cybersecurity, mainly data protection from information leaks, and ways of preventing such incidents and protecting information.

How Information Leaks

There are lots of sources through which the company can lose information: 

• various messengers (Skype, Telegram, etc.);
• email;
• open sources (social networks, forums);
• documents on paper;
• flash drives;
• disks;
• backups.

Data as a Product

Databases of confidential and personal information can be sold for good money. For example, the logins and passwords of administrators of different resources and the data required to access financial and banking information. Besides, the domains, accounts needed to access websites, and other network resources are the most expensive. Then hackers can sell such data for various frauds related to obtaining credits, processing installments, registering dubious companies. That is why you need a robust data protection solution.

Methods of Information Attack

Do you remember those popular movies about hackers who break banks over the Internet? Nothing similar happens in real life. Most often, corrupt employees are involved in data theft.  Moreover, they’ll need at least several hours for the password cracking procedure shown in the films!

The typical attack methods are:

• Using different combinations of symbols. Hackers pay attention to the user's personal information, mainly his first and last name.

• Examining hashed data on the user's computer to track patterns that will lead to finding a password.

• XSS attacks - create harmful code that infects web server.

• Backdoors and C&C: software loopholes for control over the system.

• SQL – works with the database.

• Keylogger and Form-grabber - record and transmit user actions to a remote computer.

All in all, there are lots of methods for modern cybercriminals to steal your information. That is why we recommend you to think about data protection, and our cybersecurity checklist will help you prevent unwanted outcomes. 

Data Leak Prevention

Sometimes employees are even more dangerous than hackers, as you don't expect to fail you. Thus, it is also necessary to protect confidential data from internal threats. The DLP system is what you need in such cases. 

The use of a DLP system for data protection assumes that the information security specialist understands:

• how company employees can organize confidential data leakage;

• what information should be protected from the threat of confidentiality breaches.

With DLP's help, nobody will record data on a flash drive, mobile phone memory, disk, and even take photos of the screen at work.

Signs of Company Secrets Trade

• clients leave the company - the client base can be leaked to competitors; 

• change in the behavior of some employees - a sudden improvement in their financial situation, a decrease in interest in work, an intensified correspondence on the Internet, etc.;

• clustering of employees can register their organization and offer the same services at a slightly cheaper rate.

How to Prevent Data Leaks

Employment contract. It can be directly stated that the employer will demand compensation for losses in case of disclosure of company secrets. 

High salary. The fear of losing it will most likely discourage the employee from betraying his company.

Surveillance. If employees know that somebody monitors their computers and work, they are unlikely to have a desire to transfer classified information.

Importance of Cyber Security

Cybersecurity deals with protecting networks,  systems, and programs from digital attacks. The purpose of such cyberattacks is to disrupt normal business processes, extort money from users, gain access to confidential information, change or destroy it. 

Nowadays, effective cybersecurity measures should be implemented, but it is incredibly difficult as there are many devices, and hackers are using more sophisticated attack methods. Besides, even employees can fail you. Therefore it's essential to think of ways to save your information. MBS Techservices Inc. cybersecurity specialists are ready to protect your company's data resources or organization from hacking.