The Stress of Being Breached

(Updated on 7/15/2022)

What's there to stress about?

1. There are multiple ways breaches can occur

In 2022, Verizon's Data Breach Investigation Report states that there are seven ways it can occur; criminal hacking, human error, social engineering, malware, misuse, physical action and environmental hazards. While the report highlights that using stolen credentials accounts for more than 40% of data breaches, it is crucial to note that breaches do not just stem from external threats. Internal factors such as carelessness account for almost 20% of breaches when sensitive information is shared with the wrong recipient or a lack of control measures implemented to protect data. It is tedious but essential for IT security professionals to monitor threats from internal and external sources.  

2. Breaches are increasing in frequency and no organization is spared

With the widespread adoption of remote work and cloud computing, cyberattacks have increased by 31% since 2020. It is a worrying trend not just for CISOs, but for organizations at large. Even huge organizations like LinkedIn and China's biggest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group Holding, have been greatly impacted by data breaches. In fact, both organizations have unfortunately experienced data breaches reported as one of the 15 biggest data breaches in the 21st century.

3. Data Breaches cripple organizations

Cybersecurity breaches signal impending financial loss as the average cost of a data breach is $4.24 million as of 2021. The impact of data breaches also leads to business disruptions as resources must be channeled to manage them. According to IBM, the average lifecycle of a breach was 287 days from identification to containment. Once breached, organizations lose the trust of their customers and partners and suffer a diminished reputation.

What can I do about Data Breaches?

There's no guarantee that breaches can be avoided altogether, but there are measures you can take to reduce your risk of being breached and minimize its impact if it happens to you.

A good place to start is with identifying what's at risk. You need a firm understanding of where your most sensitive files are – those that contain personal data or confidential business data. Next, you'll need to map your employee's access to these files. Once you know what's at risk, you'll need to classify business-critical data and implement protection using your DLP tools. Manual classification is no easy feat, it is time consuming and prone to errors, much like any other human process. Using Proofpoint Intelligent Classification and Protection, you can leverage Proofpoint's AI-powered classification to categorize your files according to meaningful business categories and confidentiality levels. From the dashboard, you can generate DLP policies accordingly to ensure that your most sensitive data is well protected. Proofpoint's classification engine also integrates with and augments Proofpoint Enterprise DLP with AI-generated dictionaries that you can use to enforce AI-recommended DLP policies across key data loss channels - cloud, email, endpoint and web. By doing so, you'll be able to minimize your risk exposure, impact, and the likelihood of being breached.

 Proofpoint's products come with a free trial, so stress no more and start your data protection journey with us.