Healthy business cybersecurity starts with a check-up
The number of data breach victims grew from about 182.6 million in the first half of 2023 to over 1 billion in the first half of 2024. This marks an increase of 490%, according to data from the Identity Theft Research Center (ITRC).
In 2023, the ITRC reported a record number of data compromises with 3,203 total for the year. Through the first half of 2024, however, the number of data compromises was 14% higher than the same period in the record-setting year. In total, 1,571 total compromises were recorded to start 2024.
With this in mind, it has become essential that businesses focus on how best to protect their operation — and, in turn, their customers — from cyber threats that can compromise the security of their data.
For this episode of the Insurance Speak podcast, we revisit a conversation with Roger Spears, cybersecurity project manager for accounting firm Schneider Downs, who speaks about how businesses can perform a check-up of their cybersecurity practices, and what they can do to limit their vulnerability to these attacks.
While the specifics of a cybersecurity assessment will vary business-to-business, Spears said there are some basics — not the least of which is remediation.
"Suggestions would be perform a penetration test on a regular basis and develop a plan to remediate any findings," he explained. "Saying that you've done a test is great, but it's not very valuable if you don't remediate the findings — have some plan. You don't have to remediate them the day after the test. It's best to set up a plan 30, 60, 90 days out, but have a plan for remediating those and work towards that goal of remediating."
Listen to the full episode with Spears above, or subscribe to Insurance Speak on Spotify, Apple Music or Libsyn.
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