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<\/a><\/center>Every day, companies, irrespective of their size, type and geographical parameters, face countless cyber threats from a variety of sources. The small and medium enterprises are more likely than their counterparts to succumb to data breaches because most SMEs are still not serious about implementing much-needed cyber defenses in their firms. Also, the majority of them are yet to be equipped with necessary detection methods to identify a breach quickly and to act rapidly against it.<\/p>\n
Data is what drives most SMEs. Hence, a loss of data results in hefty financial costs. But again, how hefty? According to the latest data breach report by IBM and Ponemon Institute<\/a>, the average cost of data infringement per incident is around $4.24 million. In most cases, this amount exceeds what SMEs could afford to pay and quite naturally, the companies who are unable to pay the amount, shutter down.<\/p>\n Studies also reveal that 60% of SMEs<\/a> who were victims of a data breach went out of business in less than 6 months after a report of data breach from their firm. These statistics are all frustrating, but I\u2019m personally more concerned by the fact that even today, most of the SMEs are not willing to take serious safety measures in their company to protect data.<\/p>\n Data breaches also result in a loss of customers. Customer satisfaction and trust are two important parameters to be considered since victims of cybercrime are much more likely to develop negative feelings toward a company that was unable to protect itself and its customers.<\/p>\n When the consumers were asked about recent high-profile cyber-attacks,<\/p>\n It\u2019s evident from the statistics<\/a> that the majority of customers are unwilling to cooperate with a firm affected by a data breach. Customer loss has a huge impact on financial deprivation. It is estimated that companies who lost 4% of their customers from a data breach could see the overall average cost of the incident rise to $5.1 million.<\/p>\n Adding on, many companies shut down during cyber-attacks. Even this can be disastrous in terms of loss of wealth to a company as employee salary and other costs related to inventory management, equipment handling can add up to a humongous amount. (This can be as large as $72000+ on a weekly basis for a 20 employee company<\/a> )<\/p>\n Furthermore, several countries have laws to ensure that the companies comply with a variety of state and federal laws and regulations. You might have heard about HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)<\/a> and GDPR\u00a0(General Data Protection Regulation)<\/a>. Failure to manage your customer data in accordance with these relevant laws can also result in fines, litigation, and even criminal convictions.<\/p>\n The bottom line is that data loss could be really troublesome for your firm. Without doubt the companies that are yet to take any precautionary measures are more prone to cyber-attacks in the future. With more than 6 billion unique smartphone users across the world, the concept of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ for work was a groundbreaking thought. Especially during the pandemic situation, when everything was falling apart, most of the SMEs including IT companies managed to survive by incorporating BYOD and work from home concepts in their firms.<\/p>\n Even though BYOD was a successful initiative, any spectator with a decent knowledge about computers and internet could see the security flaws that are brought to a company by BYOD. Cyber criminals are always looking for potential opportunities to steal corporate data. With unmanaged BYOD, the risk factor was really high as these portable devices were more prone to phishing scams, data leakage and spyware. On top of all these, the enterprises had to account for the possibility of an employee losing a mobile device or the device getting stolen.<\/p>\n A managed BYOD<\/a> that is equipped with a proper device management solution on the other hand, could eliminate all the above-mentioned problems and provide the SMEs with a much better insight about the status of end-user devices.\u00a0Before we dwell into the contents of device management, we may go through device security and how implementing device security via a UEM can be decisive.<\/p>\n Device security is a broad term to indicate all the measures designed to protect device information present in portable work devices such as laptops, mobile phones, desktops, and others. Data breach often take place due to the absence of a proper device security solution. There are four types of mobile device security threats,<\/p>\n Application based threats happen when people choose to download applications from unknown sites. These may look like legitimate apps but in reality, they\u2019re designed in a way to steal user data. In most cases the user may not be realizing that his data is being leaked in this manner.<\/p>\n These are the most common cases of data theft as these thefts are difficult to identify and hence go unnoticed for longer periods of time. Web based security threats happen when people go through malicious websites that might seem fine on the front but, in reality they download unwanted content in to a system without the user\u2019s knowledge.<\/p>\n These threats are also common and mainly these occur when cyber attackers target unsecured or free to use public WI-FI connections. In certain cases, hackers also create spoof networks that users unknowingly enter by providing user name and password, giving hackers the opportunity to compromise devices and credentials.<\/p>\n Physical threats to mobile devices refer to a case where the devices are stolen or lost. This threat becomes a danger for enterprises when people don\u2019t use a strong password, PIN or biometric authentication. The results of mobile device threats are that the attackers easily hack into the enterprise network using the device they obtained and to manipulate the corporate data.<\/p>\n Each of these threats can result in data loss, and device security is an all-inclusive solution that can avert the possibility of these threats. Having understood that the effect of a breach can be disastrous, it\u2019s always wise to prepare yourself before it happens. \n A cybersecurity framework consists of the best practices organizations can implement to manage all risks found within the scope of their business activities. Read this guide to get more insights on building the right cybersecurity framework for your organization.\n <\/p>\n \n Download White paper\n It is not just about \u2018loss of data\u2019<\/h2>\n
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\nHaving understood some of the unfortunate incidents caused by a data breach, let\u2019s talk about a transition that might have a small influence in accelerating of data breaches.<\/p>\nBYOD: hero or villain?<\/h2>\n
Device security: need or necessity?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/center>1. Application security threats<\/h4>\n
2. Web based mobile security threats<\/h4>\n
3. Network security threats<\/h4>\n
4. Device security threats<\/h4>\n
\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n Featured resource\n <\/h5>\n
\n Building a cybersecurity framework for your enterprise\n <\/h4>\n