A Guide To Safeguarding Your Organization’s Executives

While it might be challenging to quantify the impact that cybersecurity has on each and every business around the world, it’s clear that it has become a top concern. Not only do these cybersecurity efforts protect organizations at large, they’re also responsible for keeping the most important figures within an organization protected as well. Failure to defend against these attacks can result in businesses slipping and allowing some of their most precious data to be extracted by criminals. This post will detail the dangers of this slippage in addition to ways to defend against these attacks.

With such a large increase of cybercrime since the pandemic struck the United States, it’s easy to understand why so many businesses are concerned. Most web-based attacks, specifically malware, are often expensive issues to solve. On average, organizations must invest upwards of $2.4 million dollars to defend themselves. Any organization left vulnerable despite this security are often left without access to their data for upwards of a week.

While many businesses attempt to put the methods in place to defend against these attacks, their experts claim they’re just not prepared enough for the frequency of attacks. IT professionals of various organizations are aware of their organizations’ vulnerability to these attacks. The level of susceptibleness varies, as many of these professionals are doing everything they can to defend against them. Unfortunately, even with the help of their IT department and their cybersecurity investments, nearly 75% of organizations will be compromised by some form of ransomware. In 2020 alone, nine in ten organizations reported they were the target of ransomware attacks.

But how can businesses truly prepare themselves for these newly developed and constantly evolving attacks? The first step is identifying the major threats and targets of these attacks. Executives and other high-tier members of organizations are often the most commonly targeted in regards to these attacks. Namely because they have so much access to an organization’s most sensitive data. Accessing this data could put an entire organization at risk, meaning prioritizing the security for these executives should be top priority.

The next step is developing a protection plan suited toward your organization’s executives. This often starts with an assessment of social channels and accounts they currently operate. Social media profiles, professional networking applications, even past publications can have an impact.  Identify where the most personal information is being shared and determine whether it should be public. Attackers may target an executive strictly based on how vulnerable they believe he or she is based on the information available online. The less information shared the better for executives.

Following this assessment, executives should be properly educated in regards to identifying the types of attacks they’re prone to in addition to practicing safe habits when going about their daily tasks. Being able to identify typical phishing attempts, for example, can make a huge difference. Similarly, executives should pay attention to detail when browsing their mailboxes and avoid clicking through and opening any e-mails from senders they’ve never contacted before.

While this post and the information within it serves as a great foundation for keeping your executives better protected, there’s always more to be done. More safety tips can be found within the infographic paired alongside this post. Be sure to check it out for additional information regarding executive safety. Infographic courtesy of Cancom Global Security.