Look at your office. Do you have expensive locks on all the doors? What about the locks on the ground floor windows? Feel safe? Successful criminals are persistent and clever. They’ll find a way in. The same applies to cybercriminals who want access to your most valuable assets, intellectual property and databases.
For a start, you need to implement multiple security layers from multiple vendors over the entire enterprise. Multiple security layers are critical – according to a recent study, hackers send more than 70 SQL injection attempts per hour to even the most basic of websites. This doesn’t even cover those who are breaking into your CCTV systems just for fun. You may have sound security measures in place, but somewhere there’s a chink in your armor.
Cybercriminals get into our systems because they not only look like one of us – they ‘become’ one of us. All they need is one vulnerable employee, one vulnerable computer. Many times the access from unauthorized users looks legitimate and comes from an authorized device because the user has been the victim of a cyber-attack. Organizations, of all sizes, are now starting to understand that the device/in-house workstation is the new perimeter.
Most people – security professionals included – cannot grasp that the main vulnerability is a single act of browsing the internet. Multiply that by the number of people in your organization, and you’ll understand how truly vulnerable you are. Do you seriously believe that none of your employees ever review their personal email, click on questionable links, or look at pornography with company-issued devices? Hackers specialize in using exploits, cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, SQL injection, and other techniques to attack. Viruses, phishing, malware, spam, poisoned links, and new variations of these all pose serious risks. Social engineering preys on the vulnerability of a single employee to trust what they think is a bank or friend, but instead is an enterprising cybercriminal.
Once a cybercriminal has poisoned a browser, it creates an opening to the entire network. Once they’ve seized an authorized computer, they are basically free to roam at will. They create two-way tunnels into your infrastructure – communications, network, and databases, coming and going until they’re detected or until they are done with you, and they are rarely done with you (after all, you’re constantly inputting new data) before they’re found out.
You must realistically assess your vulnerabilities: How can you protect each person and device to ensure you don’t create a single entry point? Ask yourself: If I wanted to penetrate my systems and steal, where are my first points of entry? Given the level of security in place, how long will it be until the breach is detected? If ever? Once detected, will this prevent my entry from points B, C, and D?
The goal of cybersecurity is to try to stay at least one step ahead. You need to distribute protection across the network, application, operating system, mobile device, VoIP and database levels. You need to protect every single entrance to your organization, and every outgoing connection, in real time – from the security cameras to the CRM databases.
You can find effective, easy-to-use security protection at a reasonable price. Just make sure you do protect yourself. While in some situations it’s better to ask forgiveness, this isn’t one of them. Your livelihood, your reputation, and your customers’ identities are at stake.
David Maman is CTO of GreenSQL, a database security company for small and medium-sized businesses.