In Alaska, beasts come in the form of enormous, long-haired, silver salmon-mongering grizzly bears. Recently, while cleaning freshly caught silver salmon creek-side, a hungry grizzly bear appeared. We were not above fleeing to the safety of the garage to finish fileting salmon.

We don't have a problem knowing where to find beasts in Alaska. We live amongst the beasts and must be prepared for these encounters. In our data-driven industry, beasts can look like information-corrupting viruses, ransomware, advanced attacks, denial of services (DOS) attacks or data breaches.

Unlike bear-wise awareness and protection for outdoor enthusiasts in Alaska, a cyber-wise focus on information security is a less commonly discussed beast in many businesses today. According to the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), smaller businesses have become bigger targets for cybercriminals because the bad guys know they have fewer defense resources than large enterprises. (staysafeonline.org, 2017). The NCSA reports 77% of businesses do not have a formal written internet security policy for employees.