65% of Large UK Businesses Were Breached Last Year. Were You One of Them?

If statistics are anything to go by, UK businesses are as well equipped to fight back against hackers as a toddler is against a pack of wolves. More than 65% of large companies in the UK have suffered at least one cyber security attack in the past 12 months, according to the recently released Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2016. Such poor data security practices have led to devastating financial repercussions. In the largest data breach case, more than £3 million was lost.

Enough Is Enough

To help clueless businesses, new regulations will soon be put into effect, where businesses will be held responsible for the security of sensitive data.

The recent ratification of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) means that businesses need to get their act together, and fast. Don’t think that you can avoid data breach repercussions by simply not reporting them, either — businesses will have to comply with new data breach notification standards under the GDPR.  Non-compliant businesses will be subject to fines of up to €20 million, as well as data protection audits. GDPR regulators are making a strong proclamation: If security has been a secondary priority in your business, your joyriding days are over.

GDPR- Not Just For The Europeans

If you are a business in the US thinking that this EU regulation will not affect you, think again. The GDPR does not just apply to EU-based companies, but also non-EU companies with EU clients. This means that if you have even one European client, named Jean-Claude, or perhaps Darcy, you are duty-bound to comply with the GDPR standard.

Poor Data Security: A Global Epidemic

Clearly, many businesses have no idea how to protect themselves from data breaches. So many examples have shown that we are all susceptible to attacks from hackers.  Businesses bear the responsibility of protecting customers’ data. Sadly, almost every one of them has fallen short. It’s time to face the facts: we are living in an age where data insecurity is the new norm. The GDPR will serve as a rude awakening to many companies that have not paid enough attention to data security.  The GDPR will come into effect on May 25 2018. By then, companies will need to have implemented complex and large-scale changes to current practices. Two years might sound like a long time away, but thinking that way will put you on a path to destruction and ruin. What good is there in waiting for two years to implement changes just for the sake of compliance? Are you willing to suffer the consequences of being vulnerable for the next two years?

All businesses should have started evaluating their security practices yesterday. Because compliance alone is not your end goal. It is just a pit stop in the road to security. So how do you stop your business from being tomorrow’s big data breach headline?

First Steps In Sprucing Up Your Security Practices

• Evaluate your overall data security strategy

Sun Tzu once said, “Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Your company’s overall strategy will provide a great guide in deciding which tactics will work best to meet your needs. Coordinate with your Chief Security Officer and security team. Get acquainted with what your company has been doing (or not doing) to safeguard sensitive data. Then, think about what can be done to improve current practices.

• Create an inventory of your company’s data

One of the best ways to defend yourself from hackers is to find out what hackers want and then keep it away from them. Naturally, you will not be able to do this unless you are sure of exactly what data you manage. Creating an inventory will allow you to better understand where vulnerabilities could lie in your system.

How Ground Labs Can Help You

One key flaw of many businesses’ data security practices is the insecure storage of sensitive data. This increases the risk companies face in the event of a cyber security breach. To protect your company’s sensitive data, Ground Labs’ Enterprise Recon software will set you up better than any other. This will create a strong foundation for implementing other security tactics. Enterprise Recon helps you manage sensitive data across your entire business network from a single interface, allows for continuous Business-As-Usual monitoring as well as remediation tools to effectively handle insecure data. With Enterprise Recon, no piece of insecure data will go undetected. This way, if and when hackers breach your system, there will be nothing for them to steal.

Take Enterprise Recon for a spin today to see how easy sensitive data management can be.