Be careful if your company or business stores important data about customers because a data breach can occur.
In the digital world, data security is essential because if it is known by irresponsible people, it can cause big losses for us.
One of the threats to security in the digital world is the occurrence of data breaches or data theft for things we don’t want.
What is a data breach, and is it very dangerous for us? Here’s the full review:
Understanding Data Breach
You could say a data breach is a case of an attack in the cyber world, where hackers manage to infiltrate a system and then hack and extract all important data in the system.
A data breach is a security case in the digital world, where irresponsible people successfully access personal data from users of a device without the permission of the data owner.
Data theft like this can clearly harm a business or a consumer because it can damage the reputation of both.
For the company itself, it might be possible to return the data, but the data may have been scattered, and the customer’s trust in the company could be lost.
This condition can be experienced by an individual or a company when the conditions for using their credentials are weakened, malware attacks occur, and the system is too easy to hack.
A data breach is sometimes equated with a security breach, but the two have different meanings. A security breach is a break-in without stealing information or data. Meanwhile, a data breach is an activity of data theft by hackers.
This condition is also not the same as data leakage or data leakage. Data breaches often occur intentionally by hackers, while data leakage usually occurs because the quality of the security system is not good.
One case that is quite famous is the one experienced by the Zoom application. This video conference application became a victim of a data breach in April 2020. Around 500,000 account credentials of its users were stolen and sold on the Dark Website.
How Can Data Breach Happen?
Data theft can indeed threaten us personally, especially if the stolen data is important customer data.
Then how can this condition occur? Generally, data theft by hackers is carried out in the following ways:
Hackers Do Phishing
The main thing hackers do is Phishing. Phishing is an attack by manipulating psychologically in order to trick the user so that they will give up their personal data.
Illegal Software
Furthermore, hackers can also steal data through the use of illegal software that is used to guess the password of the user’s device.
Via Spyware
This is a type of malware where hackers steal personal data without being detected by the user from the device.
Data Breach Factors
Data leaks can be caused by several things. Reporting from Kaspersky, a well-known antivirus company, data leaks can be caused by four things as follows.
- A malicious Insider, is an individual who intentionally leaks data.
- Accidental Insider, an insider who accidentally leaks data.
- Lost or Stolen Device, lost devices such as HDD, cellphones and others.
- Outside Criminal, this is clearly hacking.
So, in a nutshell, many things can cause data leaks. Not only hacking but also the human error in handling data.
Data security problems, or in this case, data leakage, the party who has harmed apart from the user is the service provider company.
It is often forgotten that data leakage is also detrimental to service providers. The data that has been taken, processed and also analyzed.
Data that has been provided by the user after agreeing to the terms and conditions can also be considered company assets. So if you don’t want to be troubled with this issue, as an individual user, take your time to first read the terms and conditions before using an application. Don’t let your data be misused.
Anyway, the loss of data leakage for service providers can cause companies to lose users as well as some of their services. I’ll give you an example. Facebook, during the 2014 US Presidential election campaign, experienced an unpleasant thing.
President Donald Trump’s campaign team used the services of Cambridge Analytica to help with the campaign. Data from Facebook can be retrieved by Cambridge Analytica, then used to help win campaigns. And thus, Donald Trump became a president. This caused Facebook to get a lot of demands and criticism.
5 Damaging Results of Data Breach
1. Company’s innovation can be stolen by competitors.
Every business must always innovate to keep up with the latest and latest sales trends. The number of ideas and ideas developed in a business is an important asset that must be maintained to improve the quality of the business in order to be able to excel from competitors.
Therefore, it is very important to maintain every important data and asset owned by the company, especially if it is included in innovations or new systems that will be implemented in the future.
Dangerous data theft can harm the company because the innovations that will be implemented can be misused by competitors or irresponsible parties who do not support your business.
It’s also better to be prepared with a decent amount of protection. The simplest thing you can do it having a VPN. Use the Windows VPN & data privacy will remain safe. Have the premium services if you wish for better protection features. It’s definitely important, especially for a working environment.
2. Digital investigation
In this case, the company may be required to carry out digital forensic investigations to determine where the data leak is. This can help in terms of data security in the future. Governments may also file joint investigations in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Well, if the company is deliberately cheating, this can be detrimental if, during an investigation, it turns out that the data was deliberately leaked or sold. However, the most obvious thing that comes to mind when conducting this investigation is the issue of cost. How much money did you make for a data leak investigation?
3. Data security costs
Service providers will definitely change their security after the leak. If you don’t change it, it’s like digging your own grave. And this cost will not be small.
Moreover, if the service user base is large, service providers may be forced to create new security systems. It can be from investors or from users, especially if the data leak is caused by negligence in making infrastructure.
4. Trust issues
Suppose this is the same as Facebook. Many users have lost faith in Facebook. The proof? In the case of WhatsApp yesterday, who wanted to change their policy.
You could say it was Facebook’s idea, and because of that, some WhatsApp users chose to switch platforms.
5. Reputation plummeted
For example, if the problem of data leakage is too significant, users can see the service provider from another perspective. This can make the service provider’s reputation plummet and lose its users.
What You Must Do
Overcoming problems that occur when your company data is leaked can, of course, be with solutions in the form of IT Audit, Cyber Security, or training classes related to information technology that will be applied. However, it should not be done arbitrarily; the application of the right information system must also be considered based on the type of company, work program, and the sales target you want to implement. Here are tips that you can do if your company data is leaked:
Immediately find evidence, traces, or footprints that indicate the source of the data leak. Avoid blaming workers or certain parties until there is concrete evidence of a data leak that occurred.
If the data leak that occurs is caused by malicious malware that is easily spread, then immediately disconnect the hardware device with the main network connected.
Change the password or login required so that hackers who have managed to steal your data will no longer have access due to security system updates implemented.
Monitor and supervise banking activities, especially those related to finance or finance. The goal of hackers stealing data is, of course, to take advantage of your business, not only important data that can benefit them but also a nominal amount of money from business transactions that you have run.
Announce or notify related data leaks that occur only to internal parts affected by data leaks.
However, suppose the leaked data is related to consumers. In that case, your business is also required to explain the causes and solutions so that your company can demonstrate the nature of responsibility and professionalism before irresponsible parties tarnish your company’s good name through hoax information.
How to Prevent It to Happen
Even though the security of our data is threatened, we can still do some things to overcome it. Here’s how to deal with this attack:
1. Update Security Software
For companies, it is highly recommended to choose software that has high quality.
Make sure the company team installs software that is packaged with malware and anti-virus. Perform regular data security checks with third-party software programs.
2. Continue to Monitor Financial Accounts
When this attack occurs, monitoring our financial accounts is also very important because this is the first target of thieves.
Check all transactions that occur, credit reports, and so on. That way, you can find out if there are irregularities in each of these transactions.
3. Performing File Backup
Performing regular data backups can be a way to avoid this attack. Perform a full hard drive cleaning.
Then, also create an operating system to wipe the drive. This can also be done for smartphones or other gadgets that use cloud technology. But if you still feel your hard drive is not safely wiped, you can get a hard drive destruction service and make sure that all the information is gone.
4. Make a Responsive Plan
Data breaches can also be caused by human activities. Therefore, the company should provide training and education for its IT team.
The goal is for the team to understand more about cyber security. Be sure to create strong passwords on most of the company’s digital systems. Change the password periodically.
