From the most basic perspective, using the Internet has become incredibly risky because the bad guys, criminals, hackers, malicious, and, in some cases, just curious users, have recognized the Internet as a source of almost limitless information. In today’s digital economy, information = money. All data, no matter how innocuous or almost irrelevant it may seem to you, has value to someone. And because even today with everything we know about the risks and about protecting ourselves, the vast majority of both large and small companies online aren’t taking adequate steps to protect themselves. Combine a wealth of information (remember, information=money) along with a bunch of unprotected systems hosting that information, and you create a breeding ground for criminals to make a very comfortable living online stealing information and holding systems hostage (the cost of cybercrime is estimated at $6 TRILLION in 2021 by Cybersecurity Ventures). If you aren’t taking reasonable effort to protect yourself and your business online, you’re simply helping to perpetuate the problem. It’s time to break the cycle!

You may have heard of the Internet of Things (IOT). IOT refers to the billions of devices in comparison to people that are connected to the Internet. Rather than laptops and desktops being used by people, IOT devices are typically purpose-built devices that are performing a specific function. Think of the myriad of new smart home devices like the Google Nest and Amazon’s Alexa. Even your Smart TV is connected to the Internet so you can run Netflix or Disney+ right from the TV without any set top boxes. Every one of those devices (TVs, refrigerators and other smart appliances, smart home devices like light switches, garage door openers, front door cameras, the list goes on) has an Internet address and is able to talk to the Internet, just like you do when you’re on your laptop or home PC surfing. Each one of those devices represents a potential security risk if it hasn’t been properly secured. If the average household now has 10 or more connected devices, that’s 10 places where poor or non-existent security controls could provide a hacker into your home network. With so many people now working from home, someone on your or your employee’s home network is one step away from accessing the sensitive company information on your corporate network.

Simply put, cybersecurity protects everything companies (large and small) and individuals require to prevent hackers from gaining access to the information and possibly disrupting their business operations. Cybersecurity includes people (you, your users, and your suppliers), processes (things you need to do, things you and your users shouldn’t do), and technology (tools to protect your users and systems, tools to identify potential or actual security issues, and to alert, track, and record what’s happening and help you respond if a security incident does occur). Good cybersecurity hygiene helps ensure your company is proactively ready to deal with an incident, rather than reactively responding to an incident without any type of game plan or response capabilities already in place. It’s the door that you always lock, the alarm you always turn on at the end of the day, the camera system that’s always watching. Proactive activities help prevent an incident from happening in the first case and provide you with accurate and instant information if it does.