Should You Review Your Business Security After Recent Capital One Hack?

Review Your Business Security After Recent Capital One Hack

Are there open channels to your business systems and data that you haven’t considered? Live and learn from the recent Capital One cybersecurity disaster.  

It’s been all over the news, causing business and technology leaders to question their cybersecurity strategies. If Capital One, one of the biggest name brands in banking, fell victim to a breach that exposed the personal information of 100 million Americans — could it happen to us? That multimillion-dollar question has a relatively easy answer: yes, this type of data breach can happen to any business, of any size, at any time. As frightening as that sounds, there are ways that you can reduce the possibility of a major breach through proactive attention to key areas within your business. If you haven’t reviewed your business security in the past six months or so, now may be the time to get these recommendations on the calendar.

Benefits of an In-Depth Security Review

With an in-depth security review, you’re opening the doors to your business systems and data and ensuring that the only keys to the kingdom belong to the correct individuals. Vendor knowledge of systems was a key problem in the Capital One hack, with a former contractor finding a way to gain a foothold within critical business systems. Experts believe that everything can be traced back to a misconfigured open-source Web Application Firewall (WAF), something that might have been caught in a detailed security review of the business. Working with either internal auditors or an external team often provides an extra set of eyes that might catch something internal teams weren’t aware of or didn’t realize could be problematic.

Scheduling Ongoing Security Reviews

It’s important to note that there is an opportunity cost associated with security reviews. They do take time and talent away from ongoing tasks and might uncover something that your team will have to truly dig deep in order to fix. However, the cost associated with a major data breach is exponentially greater with a negative impact on business productivity and consumer confidence. Taking the time to work a review into your IT schedule may be something that business teams push back on, but the alternative is terrifying — millions of customers and potential customers learning that their personal or financial information has been compromised.

No one wants to have a public relations disaster such as the recent Capital One hack, making it extremely important to regularly review your cybersecurity settings with an internal or external audit of your business security. This includes ensuring that all of your vendors have the appropriate access levels for their needs. Luis Alvarez, CEO of Alvarez Technology Group, shared additional suggestions for securing your personal Capital One accounts in a recent online interview. See how you can prevent this type of cybersecurity breach at your business when you request a free initial consultation from Alvarez Technology Group today by calling (831) 753-7677 or filling out a quick form online.