6 Internet Security Myths You Must Stop Believing

The technological revolution has taken the world by storm and not a single person is spared from it—as long as they are not living in a cave. As the Internet becomes more affordable and accessible with every passing day, all of us colossally wish we could also create a space of our own in this digital world. Businesses and enterprises are all shifting to a digital model to be part of this transition.

However, this upsurge has also brought light to cybercrimes which can be fatal to the companies registered online. Major losses of money and reputation have devastated countless enterprises. Everyone is busy building up their cybersecurity armor, forgetting to differentiate facts from misconceptions. It is about time these myths get busted, isn’t it? Here is an attempt to do exactly that for you:

Cyber Crime

1. Your business is not big enough to be attacked:

One of the most prevalent misconceptions is that medium-sized and small-scale businesses are exempt from the attacks of these hackers. Make no mistake, the hackers do not care about the scale of your business. Well, they will obviously prefer hacking the Bank of America, but how often can you do that? Small businesses do not generally have strong cybersecurity protections in place. This makes them more prone to such attacks and that is exactly what the hacker waits for. As per reports, the small businesses are hit the most in this recent upsurge of cybercrimes.

2. The IT department can handle cybersecurity:

As it has been established now that cybersecurity is imperative for all types of businesses, it is time we look as to how we go about doing that. Almost all companies feel that appointing a Chief Information Security Officer and a functioning IT department is enough to take care of this devil. However, the truth is not so at all. It is not possible for a single sector department, let alone one person, to take care of the cybersecurity of an entire company. Besides, all the sectors of the enterprise will be affected if this mishap occurs. It requires a consolidated effort from all the departments of the busness to take steps against it. Moreover, communication with clients, consumers, and the media are also pivotal, which is why the entire office needs to be functional to initiate that dialogue.

3. Our industry does not need to worry about cyberattacks:

How many times have TV series and movies made you see that only tech companies are at risk of being cyber-attacked? What people fail to understand is, hackers can cause damage to anything and everything that is connected to the Internet.

Your company may not have an e-commerce website in place, but its network may still be connected online. That is reason enough for you to protect your organization with all that you have.

4. Our protection is perfect:

In the digital world, there is no such thing as being perfectly secure. A new problem springs up every now and then and the frantic search for better internet security software spirals up again. It does not hurt to be extra secure, right? One such multi-layered protecting software is provided by Bitdefender. Unlike a lot of others, this software is specially equipped to sense any little aberration in the active applications and report that immediately. This property of active threat defense helps to understand imminent problems. Along with these special features, Bitdefender remains the topmost security service provider getting the highest marks in all the lab tests performed.

5. All attacks are external:

Now that we have discussed hackers, who do you think they are? A creepy individual working from a shady basement, right? Yeah, pop culture movies sure like to tell you that. Surprisingly, that is not the case. Research says 75% of cases of the data breach are initiated by insiders. That makes sense too. It is advisable to take care of that by providing proper training and education about cybersecurity to all of your employees.

6. Our company does not need to do testing and training:

Testing and training can be long-drawn, and companies normally do not care enough to conduct them. However, that is exactly where the problem lies. Leaving data breaches, potential vulnerabilities out in the open gives the hackers (both inside and outside the office) a greater chance to pounce on the organization’s network, and wreak havoc. YouTube tutorials can be useful for sure; however, they are never substituted for testing. Performing penetration and vulnerability management tests is necessary and should not be avoided.

Safety has no upper limit and frankly, it should not have one. Our companies and enterprises are dear to us and we should do everything to protect them, shouldn’t we? Hence, while we are at it, let us not mindlessly believe in myths and keep our eyes open.

Bradley Wood is a freelance writer who lives in Pomona, Los Angeles. He is pursuing graduation from the University of California (UC). Bradley frequently contributes his high-quality articles in Academics and Education to our site to help students in their day-to-day life.