Security threats are not new in businesses across industries, and these breaches take a major hit on a company's financials. A Tripwire news report on an IBM security study points out that each incident of security breach costs companies about $3.92 million per incident. These cost a lot of money, and it grows a good 15% every year. IT experts believe that it will cost the world $10.5 Trillion annually at this rate.
Any security threat can be catastrophic and even harder for a small or medium business to recover from. So, no matter who your outsourced accounting service provider is, you need to be aware of these cyber security threats to identify them before they wreak havoc on your business. Read on to know more.
Why is security threat a concern in accounting?
The side effects of a security threat are endless. They have a significant effect on accounting because your financials are involved.
Losing your financial information
The most obvious target of any hacker is to get your financial records, tamper with them and drain out your money or conduct unauthorized payments. In such cases, they also get full access to your financial statements and can gain complete control over your business process overview.
Tampering business strategies and trade secrets
Once the hackers have the details of your accounts, they can quickly figure out your transaction history and related customer history, trade secrets and your company’s budgeting and forecasting can go haywire. Your spending becoming public can come in handy to your competitors in figuring out your business strategies and best you in further growth.
Look for for these 7 security threats
With a great selection of technology in project management and business process, all workings now happen on the cloud. They come with their own set of threats. Check them out.
1. Outdated software usage
No matter how much money you put into planning your business process overview, it is redundant without the latest selection of technology. Outdated software used to manage your business can lead to a lot of data threats and cyber security problems. If the software is not timely updated and does not have security layers to fight the latest bugs and viruses, then all of your systems are at risk. That is why you need a software integration partner who ensures periodic software updates take place for top-notch security. According to the Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, in a month, more than 4818 websites are attacked by cyber threats, and your software partner needs to take that seriously.
2. Spyware and ransomware attacks
Spyware is a type of malicious software that is camouflaged in the system and becomes a threat when you try to extra sensitive information from your system. It always works in the background without your knowledge and can collect all information about your credentials and financial details.
It is a very threatening virus which blocks your access to your data in no time, and it also stays hidden in the background like Spyware. Health IT Security reports say that 71% of Ransomware attacks primarily target small businesses, and you need to take that into account while setting up your cyber security system. This mostly happens because small businesses hardly spend any money to back up their information on cloud storage, and this ransomware attack can lead to permanent data loss.
3. Phishing attacks
This is one of the most common yet most dangerous security threats. Proof Point market survey reports said that in 2019 more than 88% of all companies across the world faced phishing attacks. These primarily work with fake emails or messages to which fraudulent links and information are attached. Once any of your employees click on these links, they can lead to monetary loss, data loss, financial history tampering, etc.
It is sometimes tough to catch these phishing attacks because these emails and messages are very close copies of the originals, and it takes a very detailed eye to catch them. Phishing scammers can also easily duplicate your financial documents and use them for later purchases and transactions in your names, becoming a long-term threat.
4. Weak passwords and human errors
Trace Security reportshave pointed out that more than 81% of data breaches in companies happen due to weak passwords. This is a matter of concern because companies keep a simple password for it to be easily accessible for all stakeholders, but in the end, it can lead to some real damage to your accounting and business information. Human errors can play a substantial part in generating these weak passwords. So, you can consider using a random password generator to constantly keep changing and updating your password to avoid such incidents.
5. Denial of service (DoS) attacks
Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are ones where cybercriminals gain access to your office system and deny the present users access to their own information. It floods the whole server with endless emails requesting access till the time the website denies access to all stakeholders involved, denying you access to your own financial information. These websites are then taken over by cybercriminals and used for other phishing activities and financial scams.
6. Insider threats from employees
If you have a bring your own device policy at the office, it can be a major threat to your cyber security. They have first-hand access to all your sensitive data and can choose to use them to manipulate your finances at any time. IBM Research also found out that more than 60% of companies suffered at least 20 cyber attacks in a year due to insider threats.
7. Halt and catch fire
There are methods in which sometimes cybercriminals use advanced technology to self destruct your files or information on your system. These are threats that do not lead to any information being leaked, but they are instead destroyed. These threats are not that common, but they still happen nonetheless.
Consult with IT outsourcing service partners
There is a constant increase in the number of cyber security breach issues due to the advancement of technology; these can gravely affect your finances and accounting work. That is why you need to team up with the right IT outsourcing partner who provides the best cyber security and keeps all your data safe.
At KriyaGo, we train our staff with the best security protocols and update our systems with the latest software to ensure the best cyber security in handling your back office accounting work.
Want to find out more about our work? Call us soon!
