Page 13 - Cyber Warnings December 2015

MYTH 4: It’s the number of attacks that matter

A common misconception is that if something occurs more times, it poses a bigger threat. However,
more is not always better – or in this case, worse. A recent article in Wired noted, “Counting
individual attack probes… is like counting bacteria – you get big numbers very quickly, but all you
really care about is the impact and the source.”

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, from 2005 to 2015 almost six thousand data
breaches occurred, exposing more than 820 million personal records – a large and intimidating
figure. However, when analyzing cybersecurity, raw data is not enough.

Even though 820 million of anything is a striking number, these records encompass everything from
obtained usernames and passwords to medical records and Social Security numbers. Thus, the
vast variations of information that can be gathered make it futile to talk about the sheer number of
data breaches.

Instead, a more useful approach is to analyze the severity of the breach and, more importantly,
where and with whom the information ends up.

For Enterprise Leaders

In dealing with cybersecurity and keeping your data safe, it’s crucial to be thorough and remain
cautious. Implement strategies to ward off attackers and malware, but also be aware of “smaller”
incidents that could lead to a data breach.

Understand that breaches are not always the results of malicious hardware and could actually be
caused by something internal, or that could have been 100 percent avoided.

Enterprise IT security itself can be difficult to decode and is encrypted with myth. It’s imperative to
be aware of this when choosing a security solution for your enterprise.

About the Author

Zoran Adamovic, CEO, HOB GmbH & Co. KG

13 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – December 2015 Edition
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