Identify and combat cyber theft

This past December, Kroll released their third annual cyber security forecast for the coming year. The trends they documented require organizations to strengthen safeguards and prepare to take stronger action to combat cyber theft in 2014. Taking a look at the trends they’ve shared in the report will help organizations identify and combat the increasing cyber threats.

The malicious insider

In the wake of Target’s breach, the insider threat has been getting some extra attention in the past couple months. That’s good, because the insider threat is definitely something organizations should be aware and wary of.

Kroll predicts that in 2014 at least 50% of breaches will come from a malicious insider. Combating these insider threats  will take collaboration, communication, human resources and information security. As lawmakers beef up privacy breach notification laws, organizations will have more and more access to information about insider breaches and how to prevent them.

Third-party vendors

Many companies use third-party vendors to process or store their data without giving much thought to the vendor’s privacy practices, assuming they are they same as theirs. The privacy policy of a third-party vendor may never be questioned until there is a breach and it’s too late. These subcontractors may not assist or even inform clients when data has been breached.

Vetting third-party vendors carefully and ensuring that their privacy policies are what they should be is an essential step that cannot be skipped. Before signing a contract, review their policies and make sure they’re technically, legally and procedurally up to working with your organization’s data. Communicate, audit and enforce vendor expectations to ensure vendor privacy practice compliance.

Tech tools

Having the right tools in place will help companies identify threats and breaches quickly and decrease reaction time. It may be impossible to prevent a breach, but if breached, organizations have better tools for seeing what information was accessed, what happened to it and how extensive the damage is.

Experian Data Breach Resolution recently released a new version of their data breach response guide that includes checklists and forms to help companies put a response plan in place.

Tech tools will likely continue to progress that help detect and map data breaches. The tools are getting smarter, trying to keep pace with cyber criminals, and keeping up with them, as well as with firewalls, will help companies identify and combat cyber theft.

When it comes to cyber crime, it’s important to remember that who is as important as how. There is a person behind every breach. Understanding the motivation and the tools cyber criminals will use to attack your data will help you gain the upper hand in the cyber war.