From Risk to Threat: The Escalation of Data Leaks

We hear about cyber attacks and data breaches frequently in the news.  Experts at Kiplinger caution:  “Resist the tendency to ignore a data-breach notification.”  However, in a recent study from the Ponemon Institute, the reality is that “even after a data breach, “32 percent of data breach victims took no action to protect their data.”

What’s the big deal?

The truth is that an undetected leak can quickly escalate into a data breach and security incident (think ransomware or business espionage). According to the University of Illinois at Chicago, the most valuable data targeted by cybercriminals is pharmaceutical and biotech intellectual property.  But that’s the most valuable data that is targeted by criminals.  What about the most valuable data at your company?

Monitor your most valuable data

The first step to preventing data leaks is to identify which data is most critical to the success of your business. High-risk data that hackers and cyber criminals often target includes:

• Business performance data
• Financial systems
• Information systems
• Intellectual property
• Operational data
• Partner agreements
• Strategic plans

If data leaks escalate to a data breach, companies have a lot to lose.  Companies can lose customer trust, lose partner confidence, face fines from government agencies, and risk losing future business.

Channels too vast for humans to monitor

After you identify which data loss presents the most risk to your business, next identify all channels where that data might be accessible.  With many companies implementing digital transformation, the number of channels that access your data may be increasing every day. Channels that access your data are entities that connect to your business systems, such as network information systems, financial transaction systems, public cloud companies, employees and contractors. The enormity of channels that access your business data may seem too vast to monitor.  At CybelAngel, we would agree.  At CybelAngel, we use Augmented Intelligence, which has the capacity to monitor the entirety of the internet, billions of servers, thousands of files to look for leaks of corporate data.

Speed is the key

Stop wasting time wading through security reports.  To prevent a risk from becoming a threat, speed is the key.  Augmented Intelligence (advanced machine learning working with human experts) identifies leaks that pose a threat to your business.  When high-risk leaks are detected, customers get an alert nearly in real time. With early alerts, Security Teams can move swiftly to address a leak, even if it occurs outside the company firewall.  By screening out noise and false positives, a corporate Security Team saves time and can move quickly to focus only on data leaks that pose a threat.

Augmented Intelligence

If you are thinking about information security at your company, remember that early detection is essential to prevent a risk from becoming a threat.  If you want to scan all channels continuously for potential access to your information, think about adding CybelAngel’s Augmented Intelligence – proprietary machine learning plus human cybersecurity experts. Augmented Intelligence alerts you to critical data leaks before they become major breaches.

If you need to protect sensitive data, such as financial records, new product plans, or intellectual property, rely on advance warning from CybelAngel.