Preventing data breaches is a top priority for companies across the United States and the world. It is imperative to add resistance as a bulwark against cybercriminals. This makes it increasingly difficult for them to progress towards their nefarious objectives – data theft.

The multi-stage process involves preventing the network from being compromised and preventing hackers from accessing sensitive data. Once a cybercriminal has infiltrated a private network, it becomes increasingly difficult to stop the criminal activity.

Cybersecurity experts routinely recommend mapping to identify the anatomy of data breaches. A typical example of a data breach pathway includes a phishing attack, account compromise, lateral movement, privilege escalation, and data exfiltration.

Data breaches cost an estimated $4.35 million per event. They are especially dangerous since personal information is hacked and leaked into the public domain.

Sadly, many companies are unaware of the gaping holes in their security networks. It’s imperative to adjust overall cybersecurity programs to prevent breaches, with a strong focus on enhancing your software supply chain security measures.

Prevention is Better Than Fixing

By blocking hackers from progressing beyond the first stage, rigid security measures can safeguard companies and users from criminal activity.

Typically, the first stage of cyberattacks involves any combination of spear phishing, email phishing, or social engineering. Criminal activity can occur from internal network vulnerabilities just as easily as from a third-party vendor network.

These attack vectors must be fully understood, anticipated, and corrected to block any attempt to infiltrate the security systems of a company’s mainframe and user network. Various cybersecurity disciplines come into play, such as detecting notable data leak management, security awareness training, vendor risk, and detection of internal vulnerabilities.

Cyber awareness training naturally invokes hard discussion of multiple areas, including:

• Social media
• Remote work
• Cloud Security
• Mobile Internet
• Removable media
• Social engineering
• Email and Internet use
• Phishing and pharming
• Physical hardware security
• Best practice methodology for username/password combinations

By maintaining strict security protocols, it is possible to minimize compromises to the company’s network. Firewalls, antivirus software, and endpoint detection/response solutions are sacrosanct. Regarding data leaks, data breach strategies can mitigate them. Unfortunately, data leaks make it much easier for criminals to obviate security protocols that would otherwise prevent unauthorized network access.

A multi-phased cyberattack pathway – phishing, account compromise, etc. – is often circumvented through internal or privileged credential leaks.

Companies that become victims of data breaches tend to spend millions of dollars on damages. The quicker you can respond to them, the better. The dark web is a nefarious domain of virtual groups and gatherings of cyber criminals. These include forums, marketplaces, Ransomware blogs, and Telegram groups. Such is the duplicity of cybercrime activity that there are often falsified announcements taking place in rates of weblogs. These mislead security investigations so that the true direction of data breaches can avoid detection. Statistics further illustrate that around 6/10 data breaches are third-party breaches.

Any cyber security strategy that neglects third-party breaches invariably puts the company at risk. Various automated systems can be implemented to mitigate the risks of false positives and wasteful security resource expenditure.

In other words, strategies can be used to accurately direct resources where they should go. Regarding vendor risk management (VRM), the goal is to reduce the risks vendors pose to your company’s security. This multi-step process is also tailored to specific cybersecurity consultants’ needs and expectations.

For example, you might encounter a VRM strategy that focuses on risk assessment during onboarding, ensuring statutory compliance, continuously scanning the vendor’s systems and networks for security risks that could lead to data breaches, and determining vendors who no longer meet the stringent security requirements of cybersecurity strategies.

In all instances, the goal is to safeguard internal sensitive data from third-party breaches. This begins by preventing criminals from accessing this sensitive data.

Multifactor Authentication

Several powerful tools and resources are available in this regard, notably MFA (multifactor authentication). These additional steps in the security verification process make it much more difficult for cybercriminals to attack and steal data. Biometric authentication, facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, password-protected logins, and so forth are standard. Of course, there are more powerful security measures known as privileged account management systems (PAMs). These PAMs restrict access to users with high-security clearance. Only authorized users can progress beyond specific pathways.

Many other powerful cybersecurity systems and networks have been developed over the years. One such system is the Zero Trust Architecture framework. Dubbed ZTA, this framework has zero trust in internal and external network activity. Everything is a risk and treated as such. Continuous authentication of user accounts is undertaken to validate the integrity of users whenever resources are in play. In 2021, President Biden’s Cybersecurity executive order denoted the ZTA system as the preferred model for preventing data breaches.

Naturally, the scope of security operations varies from one company to the next. However, it is important to manage incident responses as effectively as possible. This is known as an Incident Response Plan. Viewed in perspective, many protective measures can be implemented to prevent the organization from being breached. The security measures, functionality, accessibility, and potentially disruptive effects must be measured against organizational objectives. Data worth storing is certainly data worth protecting.