Page 41 - Cyber Warnings August 2017

Identity Protection: Building Your Line of Defense
By Rick Kam, President and Founder, ID Experts

The staggering volume of emerging cyber threats today and the means by which more
traditional “cyber” or data security and privacy incidents are presenting themselves mandate
now more than ever that identity protection be part of your organization’s incident planning and
response efforts.

While cyber-attackers are becoming ever more sophisticated at stealing information from
business systems, gaining entry into those systems is relatively easy because employees,
vendors, and sometimes customers are not very sophisticated at keeping them secure. While
high level IT professionals know the best practices for protection by heart, many employees and
others in the consumer sector may be completely unaware of ways they can safeguard private
company information. By encouraging your employees, users, and customers to follow these
key security concepts and practices, you can keep more of your data safe.

1. Create an awareness program
Facilitate ongoing communication within your organization about cyber threats, risks, and a plan
of action, should a breach occur. Awareness programs should promote basic security hygiene
reinforced with ongoing information about new threats and the consequences of poor security
practices. Make sure your employees understand that this issue is not something to be taken
lightly, and failing to implement proper security measures can potentially cost the organization
millions of dollars - all the while, putting hundreds, thousands, or even millions of individuals at
risk of identity theft and compromised private information. At a minimum, every user needs to
know that data theft and cyber-attacks are a daily concern, and that what they do in their
personal lives can affect their privacy and financial well-being, as well as the organization’s.
Employees should be well-versed on the wide variety of online scams designed to trick them
into divulging information regarding confidential business data - scams can show up through
email, social media, or over the phone. They should also be aware that all information needs to
be protected - not just “obviously” private data. Seemingly unimportant information like a
company directory, if it accidentally falls into the wrong hands, could lead to a breach. Holding
interactive training sessions on current threats and defense tactics is a valuable educational
experience.

2. Invest in identity protection services
Another crucial part of a strong cybersecurity strategy is including identity protection services in
your employee benefits package before a breach occurs. If a significant number of your
protected employees start seeing unusual activity on their accounts, there’s a pretty good
chance something has happened. Catching a breach early – before hackers can really upend
people’s lives – is the best way to minimize the fallout from a breach. This is why identity
protection is poised to become one of the fastest-growing areas of voluntary employee benefits,
with projections that 70 percent of companies will offer identity protection services as an
employee benefit by 2018, up from 35 percent in 2015. A well-rounded offering will include
protection from all types of identity theft, including medical identity theft and health insurance
fraud.

3. Encrypt your digital data
The best way to protect your digital data is to use encryption. While this method does not
prevent data from being obtained by malicious parties, it does ensure that anything stolen will

41 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – August 2017 Edition
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