CYBERSECURITY: Protecting your business from cyberattack calls for a team approach. By Jason W. Dallas

By Jason W. Dallas

iCorps Technologies

The Trojan horse is said to have been a tactic used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the battle.

Metaphorically, a “Trojan horse” has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place.

Today, “Trojan horses” lurk in every facet of our digital world, waiting for the opportunity to create havoc on unsuspecting victims.

The largest cybersecurity risk a business has is also a resource without which it cannot succeed — its people.

In fact, 52 percent of organizations admit their people are their biggest weakness when it comes to cybersecurity, according to Kaspersky Labs.

Verizon concluded in its 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report that 85 percent of security breaches involved a human element.

These breaches could be caused by malicious intent, but also could simply result from employees’ carelessness or their lack of knowledge.

For example, 20 percent of breaches in 2021 were initially caused due to compromised credentials, according to an IBM report, reenforcing the importance of strong passwords and multifactor authentication.

The statistics highlight the importance for organizations of all types to implement cybersecurity awareness training for their entire team.

The training serves to help educate and empower employees to lower an organization’s risk profile by detecting and avoiding obvious and common threats.

There are numerous benefits to equipping your team with the insight and knowledge to help protect against attacks.

Jason W. Dallas is cybersecurity manager at iCorps Technologies.

Being informed creates a better organizational culture. By establishing cybersecurity as a priority, employees can help keep each other accountable for best practices and support each other in technology use.

Employees can be proactive in identifying suspicious phishing attempts, whether it be dubious links, impersonation emails and other threats.

Heightened awareness benefits employees in their professional as well as personal lives, from increased employee morale to satisfaction and retention.

A Ponemon Institute study showed that 31 percent of consumers said they discontinued their relationships with an organization following a data breach, while 65 percent said they lost trust in the entity after being affected by one or more breaches.

Our customers and clients are becoming increasingly aware and concerned about cybersecurity risks, according to KPMG, a multinational professional services network. As they become more knowledgeable, organizations must respond by implementing tools and technologies that prove their resiliency to threats.

When potential customers see that you are taking a more proactive approach with your cybersecurity posture, they will be more likely to do business with you.

Cybersecurity incidents don’t just harm valuable data. They can affect other resources such as time, money and SEE PAGE 16

showcase current trends and highlight your aesthetics.

One of the keys to a successful TikTok video is to use trending music and sounds that are already popular on the platform.  INSTAGRAM

Instagram has over 1 billion users every month, with the demographics evenly split between men and women. The age group that most commonly interacts with Instagram is 18- to 45-year-olds.

Businesses can post Instagram stories, reels or posts, which are generally videos or images of your company. Don’t forget to keep the filters and style of photography consistent to build your brand awareness.

Instagram prioritizes several signals in its algorithm, including post popularity (likes and comments), information about the poster, user activity and interaction history. It tries to understand what you might be interested in based on how many posts you like and what kind of content you most engage with.  LINKEDIN

LinkedIn has over 722 million registered users, 15 percent more males than females. Its largest demographic is middle-aged professionals.

Many businesses use their LinkedIn professional profiles to post businessrelated content, videos regarding services and products, and promotion of blogs. The biggest difference with LinkedIn is that while you want to keep things short on other social channels, LinkedIn allows for long-form content.  FACEBOOK

Facebook, which launched in 2004,

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even reputation. Should a breach or other security incident occur, it can be costly and take time to repair and reinstate normal business operations.

The average total cost of a ransomware breach in 2021 was $4.62 million, according to IBM’s Cost Of A Data Breach report.

“From 2020 to 2021, the cost of a breach increased by 10 percent,” the report stated. “It takes an average of 287 days to identify and contain a breach, and breaches only get more costly as time goes on.” boasts 2.9 billion monthly active users. As Facebook has aged, so has its regular users. While most 18- to 29-year-olds have a Facebook profile, its users are primarily age 50-plus.

Typical content on Facebook includes product photos, videos such as behindthe-scenes style content, trending topics in your field, blog posts, branded graphics and infographics.

The Facebook algorithm has changed drastically over the years. Currently, the algorithm uses three main ranking signals to show each user the stories and posts that are meaningful to them.

These signals are based on who posted the items; you are more likely to see posts from companies and people you have interacted with in the past. The type of content you see will also be determined by what you have previously interacted with. If you interact with videos, for example, you will see more videos.

Lastly, interactions will prioritize what you see. More engagements mean that certain posts get prioritized.  TWITTER

Twitter has 217 million daily, active users — with slightly more males (56 percent) than females (44 percent). The largest age group using Twitter is 18- to 29-year-olds, followed by 13- to 17-year-olds.

Businesses have many options for what to Tweet. They can offer updates on their business, engage audiences by using polls, share blog links and post the all-popular GIF. The one caveat, though, is that Twitter has a 280-character limit.

Since Twitter users can toggle between two different timelines — Home or Latest Tweets — it uses multiple algorithms to determine all aspects of how content is served.

To increase your Twitter reach, try posting in the morning (Mondays and Thursdays are best), be present regularly on Twitter and use tags, videos, photos and GIFs.

How do you measure success?

Each of the platforms has an analytics tool that allows you to see how many people are viewing and engaging with your social content. It is important to check those analytics regularly to see what is working and what is not.

If you find things are not working, you may want to adjust your content to better reflect your audience or try posting at different times.

Each platform also has the opportunity to use ads to expand the audience who sees your content. A mixed organic and paid strategy can help lead to more views and engagement for your business. And that’s the ultimate goal. I

Cybersecurity awareness training should therefore be viewed as an investment to avoid larger costs in the future.

Regulated businesses, including those in the health care and banking fields, have specific compliance-related cybersecurity requirements.

While unregulated businesses may not be mandated to adhere to certain standards, anticipated changes on the federal, state and local levels are expected to significantly impact their cybersecurity protocols in the coming future.

There is no doubt that a security awareness program is a good move for an organization. All of the benefits of security awareness training can work together to minimize risk and enable your employees to make better and more informed decisions.

By offering — and potentially even mandating — cybersecurity awareness training, every employee will be on the same page on how to protect your organization. And knowing your employees are aware, prepared and focused on preventing a cybersecurity incident improves an organization’s confidence. I

From developing novel cancer treatments and providing products critical to the fight against Covid-19, to making windows and displays more energy efficient, we are committed to making a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day.

We are proud to be part of a global company that has endured for more than 350 years. From its humble beginnings as the Angel Pharmacy in 1668, today the businesses of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany employ around 60,000 people, including more than 3,000 Massachsetts-based colleagues, who live and work in 66 countries around the world. Our passion for science and technology is what inspires us to find solutions to today’s toughest challenges and create more sustainable ways to live for generations to come.

Learn more about emdgroup.com and join our team.

The businesses of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, operate as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma, and EMD Electronics in the U.S. and Canada.

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