Cybersecurity is a Shared Responsibility
Strong privacy, security, and compliance practices are fundamental in our digital era. At FormAssembly, a leading web form and data collection platform, we prioritize these principles. We not only maintain the highest cybersecurity standards but also empower our users to do the same.
Cyberattacks are constantly evolving, making it crucial for both individuals and organizations to stay vigilant. This blog will explore the biggest cybersecurity challenges of 2024 and equip you with the knowledge to safeguard your data.
Evolving Cybersecurity Concerns
Data breaches pose a significant risk for companies and individuals due to increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. Here are some key areas of vulnerability:
- Remote Work: The shift to remote work has introduced new security challenges. Home networks can be less secure than office networks, and employees using public Wi-Fi or neglecting strong passwords and multi-factor authentication are at increased risk of hacking and phishing attacks.
- Phishing Attacks: Deceptive emails (phishing) and texts (smishing) aim to steal personal information or trick users into clicking malicious links. The ever-growing use of electronic devices makes it harder to recognize these attempts amidst the constant stream of messages.
- Accidental Data Disclosure: Human error remains a major concern. Employees with access to sensitive data may accidentally leak it or use work computers for personal activities, compromising security. FormAssembly’s Director of Security and Compliance, David Scovetta, highlights a common issue: “Sharing configurations publicly instead of keeping them internal can expose sensitive information.”
5 Security Hygiene Best Practices
The threat of cyberattacks may leave you feeling concerned or vulnerable, but there are many steps organizations can—and should—take to keep data, customers, and employees safe. Here are the top five cybersecurity best practices for better data security.
1 – Protect and Manage Passwords
Passwords are one of the simplest ways to protect sensitive information, but too often, they are not taken seriously by either employees or organizations. Weak passwords are easy targets for hackers, especially when “123456” or “password” are still the most commonly used passwords across all industries.
A cybersecurity best practice for passwords is to ensure they have at least 10 characters with a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. The more complex and strong your password, the exponentially longer it will take for a hacker to solve.
Adding multi-factor authentication and using a password manager like LastPass (which only needs you to remember one login password) makes it easy to follow these best practices, even when you have countless complex passwords for work. You also want to make sure you’re not using the same passwords for different accounts, Scovetta says.
“Credential stuffing is a really common attack vector where bad actors look at prior breach records and see where else users are using the same name and password,” he says.
2 – Conduct Routine Employee Security Training
The saying “you don’t know what you don’t know,” rings true for cybersecurity awareness. If companies don’t provide regular, in-depth training on cybersecurity best practices, chances are their employees won’t seek it out themselves. In fact, over 90 percent of cyberattacks occur because an unaware employee revealed sensitive information in a phishing scam.
A great way to make sure everyone is on the same page is by providing education on the different types of cyberattacks and how to stay alert to these threats. “
“And most importantly, how to escalate to your own security teams if you do come across something which seems unusual,” Scovetta says.
Regular training, assessments, and even random simulated phishing attacks are all simple ways to keep everyone alert and aware. It’s also important to establish cybersecurity awareness as vital to the safety of your employees and customers, rather than simply framing it as a “necessary evil.”
3 – Regularly Back Up Data, {and Backup Those Backups)
Digital data loss or corruption is a serious disaster, but it can be prevented with a few smart security measures. If your company has physical data, backups are especially important to protect this information from threats like natural disasters or building fires.
Backing data up offsite not only gives peace of mind, but is a cybersecurity best practice for keeping sensitive data safe and secure. Cloud backup services and databases are an ideal solution because they store all data on a remote server and provide data recovery capabilities. These services also often have end-to-end encryption for added security to ensure that data is protected as it moves from your company to the cloud database.
“Be sure to test your recovery operations at least annually, and ensure that you’re able to recover backed up data in a disaster scenario,” Scovetta says.
4 – Maintain and Test an Incident Response Plan
While it is critical for organizations to maintain cybersecurity best practices, this doesn’t mean that a company is never at risk for a threat. It only takes one security breach to cause serious damage to a company’s reputation and finances. Companies should be proactive about creating, maintaining, and following an Incident Response Plan in the event of a cyberattack.
This plan outlines the steps a company needs to take to minimize the damage caused by the threat, recover data, and make changes to policies to help avoid future attacks. Along with creating an Incident Response Plan, it may also be helpful to create plans for specific types of threats, such as phishing attacks, and to have communication plans in place for employees, customers, and partners.
5 – Comply with all Laws and Regulations
Companies are required by law to follow all privacy and compliance regulations. These regulations exist to provide additional security for sensitive data, such as FERPA, HIPAA and GLBA . Non-compliance endangers not only the sensitive information of a company and its employees, but its customers as well, and can result in financial penalties, or worse.
Ask questions about where your sensitive data is being stored – location – private or public cloud – and the credentials of the data centers that your data resides in.
To follow cybersecurity best practices, it’s important to know which compliance regulations are relevant to your company and to make sure your company remains up-to-date with any changes to these regulations. Conducting regular compliance risk assessments also alongside cybersecurity risk assessments to stay informed about your company data, regulation requirements, and to ensure these regulations are met.
Your Data, Our Priority: How FormAssembly Ensures Security
At FormAssembly, we understand the importance of keeping your data safe. That’s why we take a multi-layered approach to security, ensuring your information is protected from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse.
Safeguarding Your Data:
- Secure Data Centers: We store your data in geographically dispersed data centers featuring advanced security measures to ensure redundancy and protection.
- Disaster Recovery: We have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place to ensure business continuity and minimize disruption in case of unforeseen events.
- Industry-Leading Compliance: We maintain compliance with industry-leading data security standards, including HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS. These certifications demonstrate our commitment to safeguarding sensitive information.
Additional Security Measures:
- Intrusion Detection: We employ advanced intrusion detection systems to identify and prevent security threats in real-time.
- Employee Security: Our staff undergoes regular security awareness training to ensure they understand best practices for protecting your data.
Learn More:
For a complete overview of our security framework, please visit our security page.
Don’t Get Left Behind: Become a Data Steward Today
Cybersecurity threats are just the tip of the iceberg. Evolving regulations, customer privacy demands, and the ever-changing data landscape present a complex challenge for organizations. But there’s a solution: becoming a data steward.
Download our whitepaper, “Understanding the Importance of Data Stewardship: How to Effectively Manage and Secure Customer Data,” and discover how a data stewardship mindset can empower your organization to:
- Stay compliant with evolving regulations.
- Build trust with your customers by prioritizing data security and privacy.
- Gain a competitive edge by effectively managing valuable data assets.
