The Cost of Doing Nothing Is This Year's Scariest Halloween Horror

While Halloween brings plenty of horrors, those fears are no match for the impact on businesses if they fall victim to a data breach. The scariest part of all? The risk of a data breach can be eliminated with the right security strategy, yet businesses continue to fall victim to the terror.

According to the recent report The Surprising New State of IT in a Remote World, 54% of IT professionals are spending more time on managing security threats since the transition to remote work – and out of all the concerns, falling victim to a cloud security breach (53%) is this year’s top rated. Followed closely after the fears of data breach are malware, insecure employee behavior, ransomware or an internal breach.

It’s clear that organizations are aware of the risks and detrimental impact, the question is why aren’t they being more proactive in addressing them? With 31% of global companies being attacked by cyber-criminals at least once per day, it’s not a matter of if your company will experience an attack, but when.

Stronger security doesn’t need to be complex

Security and experience always walk a fine balance, and there’s nothing scarier than implementing a security solution that will be too difficult for employees to use. While organizations understand the risk of cyberthreats, the fear of complicating an employee’s workday with too much friction is a common reason why some organizations do nothing at all.

Unfortunately, cybercriminals are a step ahead and know there are gaps in the defense of many organizations. Ransomware attacks surged 148% during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the risk of data breaches happen to organizations of all kinds – large and small. The balance of ease of use coupled with increased control are the foundational components of building a security strategy that can mitigate the heightened threat landscape.

Don’t fall into the horror of being attacked with a security breach. Here are a few security practices you can start now to get ahead of the consequences of doing nothing.

Monitor the dark web

A recent LastPass survey of 3,250 global participants found that 86% have no way of knowing if their information is on the dark web. The dark web is a part of the internet that isn’t indexed by search engines and is mostly used for criminal activity.

With 15 billion stolen logins circulating on the dark web, do you know if your employee’s credentials are secure? Dark web monitoring services will alert users if their accounts have been compromised in a breach. These services are simple to set up and work in the background as you browse the web, only prompting you when you are at risk and need to take action.

Securely share passwords

Now that we are all spending more time online, passwords have become even more prevalent in our day to day. This also means password sharing is more prevalent; you need to share the streaming password with the family or a shared work account with your employer. 80% of data breaches are caused by weak or reused passwords, which makes password sharing riskier than ever.

Password sharing through a password manager enables users to share a selected password, or even a folder of passwords, with another individual or a group of users. The user can also decide whether others should be able to view the password or not. The best part of all? All of the passwords are encrypted, which ensures the passwords never end up in the wrong hands.

Enforce multifactor authentication

Multifactor authentication (MFA) requires the individual complete two or more authentication factors prior being granted access. In short, MFA doubles the security of logins. MFA is framed around something you know (like a password), something you have (like a smart phone) and something you are (like a biometric). In the event that a password was compromised, the hacker would not have access to the second authentication factor, such as a biometric, which would prevent the fraudulent access.

The trick for MFA is to ensure the additional layer of security doesn’t get in the way of employee’s work. It’s critical MFA is as invisible in the login experience as possible, leveraging what the user already has and can easily access – like their smartphone, and their fingerprint.

Don’t fall into the horror of doing nothing

While falling victim to data breach is a scary scenario for all, taking proactive security measures can help alleviate your fears. Don’t become the next headline, protect your business with a solution that’s easy for employees to use. Get started with a free 14-day trial of LastPass today.