Most business owners cringe whenever cybercrime news appears on their screens or email inboxes. It’s typically gloom and doom scenarios warning of the endless onslaught of threats, risks, and general mayhem that reader needs to be aware of. Or perhaps it is a new scam or hack without a currently known solution that has the potential to irreparably harm businesses of all kinds at any time. The current state of cybercrime is rarely positive, and the press likes to keep that in the forefront.
But are there any positive angles to explore? Can businesses ever take a breath to appreciate the benefits that enhanced security efforts afford?
There are a few glimmers of hope through all the negative attention and glaring issues surrounding cybercrime and its effects on business. In honor of the Thanksgiving season and to help encourage a slight shift of perspective, here is a quick look into the good news.
Increased Awareness Affording Better Practices
The tip of the spear in establishing better practices to ward off potential cyberattacks is awareness of these attacks in the first place. And awareness among businesses, and the individuals who work within them, is at an all-time high. To effectively spot a potential attack, such as a phishing attempt that can lead to data breach, employees and executives alike need to be fully aware of these threats and the risks they pose. An increased focus on providing education and training to employees, along with the increasing awareness of cyberattacks resulting in more mainstream familiarity, has given most businesses a leg up when it comes to reducing risks.
Certainly, these efforts need to be reinforced and expanded upon regularly to maximize their effect. But the fact that most people now understand, at least on a basic level, many common cyber threats and understand that their daily actions play a role in establishing better security practices bodes well for more effective safeguards now and in the near future. Many businesses have seen the value in providing training and awareness opportunities and are encouraged to keep this as a focus moving forward.
Teamwork is Paying Off
Even though it might seem like the deck is stacked against you if your business experiences a data breach or other attack, a collaborative approach to fighting cybercrime is starting to pay off. The last few years have raised so many alarms that businesses and entities that once stood at odds with one another are now teaming up for the benefit of all. From knowledge sharing to collective efforts towards enhanced security measures, teamwork is proving effective in the worldwide fight against cybercrime.
The World Economic Forum’s Partnership Against Cybercrime is one shining example of this. The purpose of this partnership is to help encourage better cooperation between businesses and law enforcement to “raise the cost of conducting cybercrime and increase the risks for cybercriminals.” These efforts have resulted in solid effort and discussion between leaders in many business sectors and have created effective communication between them and law enforcement for cybersecurity purposes. T partnership has made some goals for 2022 which include the following:
- Coordinating a joint effort to map the cybercrime landscape
- Facilitate action-oriented groups to leverage disruption opportunities
- Structure and formalize the Partnership research and operational efforts
- Continue to explore successful approaches for disrupting cybercrime
The Cyber Threat Alliance is another good example of similar teamwork in action. This is a non-profit group that has been established to help “improve the cybersecurity of our global digital ecosystem by enabling real-time, high-quality cyber threat information sharing among companies and organizations in the cybersecurity field.” The alliance not only shares possible threats between different organizations but also aims to help understand the tactics used by threat actors to better prepare and defend against future attacks.
Taking Down Crime Rings Is More Likely than Ever Before
Reducing the risk of cybercrime is one thing, but actually pursuing the perpetrators of an incident is another. Without an effective means to capture and punish threat actors, cybercrime has grown exponentially in recent years. But the collaborative efforts mentioned above are not only helping businesses better prepare for and handle cyberattacks, but they are also enabling law enforcement agencies across the globe to be more effective at taking down the crime rings responsible for the attacks.
With more agencies and organizations invested in securing such business networks and operations, the issues involved with capturing criminals are dissipating. With business owners in open communication with local law enforcement and local law enforcement in communication with international enforcement agencies, taking down crime rings is more effective than ever. That’s not to say it’s a sure thing, but this increased cooperation certainly makes the likelihood of shutting down cybercrime syndicates much higher than in years past.
Advancing Technologies Lead to Dynamic Disruption
The cat-and-mouse game between cybercriminals and the technologies created and designed to help thwart them continue to advance, which is another good sign toward improved security efforts. No system or software will ever be able to prevent all cyberattacks outright, but increased efforts by developers and cybersecurity professionals to create tech that can be used to disrupt threat actors effectively are still encouraging. This is poised to be an ongoing issue because criminals will surely adapt and create new tactics when facing advancing technologies intended to shut them down. But with more dedicated cybersecurity professionals working tirelessly to combat attacks, any disruption in criminal tactics is welcome.
Stay Thankful but Stay Prepared
With so many other negative headlines and issues surrounding the state of cybercrime, take a second to soak in the above points of optimism and stay thankful that there are still a few glimmers of hope amidst a sea of digital despair. But right alongside those grateful feelings, make sure you stay prepared by having data security planning and response services in place. There is never a bad time to be thankful, but your being unprepared for a data breach or other incident leaves your entire business at risk.
LibertyID provides full service, fully managed identity fraud restoration to its subscribers. With a 100% success rate in resolving all 31+ forms of identity fraud. LibertyID Business Solutions provides Business fraud remediation, full pre-breach preparation with custom WISP protocols, post breach regulatory response, customer, and employee identity fraud restoration management, advanced employee training and third-party vendor management tools.