#this is now officially probably a cm centric blog

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Preventing Hacks: How to keep your B2B Strategy Secure

Does being digital have to mean being vulnerable? If data is the new gold, then databases are the new goldmines. Here is how you can keep them secure.

With the growing numbers of devices that are constantly embedded with network connectivity, there is a continual threat to data security. The number of devices itself gives hackers a larger canvas on which to prey on. With IoT (Internet of Things) prevailing everywhere, hackers can now get creative and even break-in to a firm’s CCTV camera system to create havoc if they so desire, since it’s probably connected and synced to a network thanks to IoT.

Security implications and data protection is fundamental today to not only ensure user-privacy but to also potentially save a company from damages worth millions. 

Recent Malware that Demands every Businesses Attention The word ransomware became a household name this year when WannaCry spread rapidly around the world affecting not only mid to large entities but also public utilities. The ransomware had all but crippled National Health Service hospitals and facilities in the United Kingdom.

Later on, US officials concluded that the ransomware was a North Korean government project gone wrong. In total, WannaCry had snared $130,000 or 52 bitcoins. 

One of the key reasons that the WannaCry attack came in parts was due to a Windows vulnerability. Microsoft had released a MS17-010 patch for the bug but the institutions who hadn’t applied it were still vulnerable to the attack. 

As luck would have it, this was followed a month later by another wave of ransomware attacks which infected multiple networks across countries. Big business brands like Danish shipping company Maersk, and even Russian oil giant Rosnoft were largely hit. This malware was given a range of names like Petya, NotPetya and seemed more advanced than the infamous WannaCry. The lesson in general was- everybody who is digital is vulnerable, large or small, and security should be the priority online as much as offline.

Every B2B should Pay Heed With investments in martech exploding, it is definitely worth it to bear in mind that ‘eighty percent of investors will not take a chance on a smaller firm that has suffered a data breach’, as Holly Rollo, CMO of RSA Security , a business-driven security firm noted in a recent blog.  

Smaller companies may lack sufficiently experienced staff or roles like that of Chief Security Officer. The usual process is for an IT network person to keep the network safe, maintain the laptops and associated IT equipment. 

But is that adequate in a time when most sellers are sitting on data goldmines that need to be protected? Data is big in B2B marketing. With company and employee sensitive information sitting on their systems, B2Bs need to own up to the responsibility of protecting the data as well as protect their customer relationships. The increasing adoption of marketing automation,  ever-increasing marketing technology stack to engage with prospects and customers, Big Data becoming a reality even for the smallest of firms, and ever increasing opportunities to interact digitally with the universe of stakeholders are all reasons as to why security has to take centerstage today. 

Privacy, Security and Marketing Automation Overall privacy and security of Marketing Automation is a key area for B2Bs to consider. It is important to not only identify existing threats and the way they corrupt entire networks or systems, but also to have a fair assessment of emerging cyber threats along with secure ways to prevent them. 

When choosing automation for various levels of marketing, it is crucial for B2Bs to demand answers to questions regarding:

Security of owned data during integration, 

Security when using third-party functions, 

Levels of foreseen data loss or threat in event of a breach while using automated tools.

Common Threats Are Faced by even Leading Businesses Typically, businesses are exposed to an array of cyber threats. Another recent example is the Yahoo hack where close to 1 billion accounts were compromised by this biggest data breach in history. At the time, Yahoo had said that, “An unauthorized party” broke into the accounts. The breach may have been related to theft of Yahoo’s proprietary code.

Even the big players are susceptible to threats and although cyber security is something that can be considered simple, it is often overlooked. 

One of the more common modern threats to surface are DDoS -- Distributed Denial of Service wherein a deliberate attempt to overload a particular target by sending a large volume of traffic to that location is made. DDoS attacks have in fact been used more and more frequently. In 2017 itself, DDoS attacks were launched on popular sites like Al Jazeera, Le Monde, Le Figaro among many more. 

While some hackers may orchestrate such attacks mainly to cause harm, other not too widely known downtimes may simply have been due to insufficient hosting ability to cope with large volumes of online traffic. 

Simple Ways to Keep a B2B Site Secure  When a personal computer or an employee’s computer that is part of a larger network is hacked, the breach could involve an array of disturbances from stealing saved information for various websites, or stealing logins, thereby giving the hacker enough dope to access online resources of the company’s network too. 

What Every B2B Should Keep in Mind when it comes to Data Security

Data Security is very crucial to every business size

Hackers attempt to breach data all the time, no matter the type or size of company

70% of digital document security attacks are against small businesses

Regular password and software updates act as a strong line of defense

Always use long phrases or complicated words to secure your network

Never continue using pre-set passwords, hackers are already aware of them

Secure important documents using an information-centric data security system

Backing up of important data should always be a priority

Companies who collect key customer centric information should focus on adding more layers of security to protect vulnerable user data

To keep customer information secure, the ability to encrypt data that’s saved on a server, as well as “data in transit”, i.e., information that is in the process of being transmitted takes priority

Understanding how and why these hacks occur can save small to medium companies a lot of time and effort. 

Hacks can come from:

Compromised websites (websites that employees or those part of the network system who visit insecure sites),

Infected software. 

Some modern hackers can make use of bots to scan IP’s of users with the attempt to gauge some weaknesses within the system. Integrated components are now a norm and part of most websites. Their upkeep and maintenance too require a fair bit of debugging and attention. These various components that now come in the form of plugins, widgets and more can also lead to security issues if left unsupervised. 

One effective way to prevent this from happening is by regularly updating software and code. 

Content Management Systems serve as easy targets. Because, one main breach into the core back-end system can wipe out the site’s content completely. Although B2Bs will be smart enough to ensure they have backups in place, knowing that the CMS makes for an easy target can ensure that adequate measures are taken at the base-level itself to ensure that any data breach is blocked before it turns nasty.

Some basic action points, like ensuring your CMS is not outdated, plugins and themes are updated with proper security fixes and the sort will help in better content management and protection. 

Server Attacks:Besides these, there could be various kinds of server hacks. Given that a lot of companies today use ‘shared’ servers, B2Bs who do so should be doubly aware. When you use a shared server, the same drives are being used to host all accounts, CPUs, memory, blogs, even your ecommerce portal. If one of the websites hosted on the server get hacked, your own site could be susceptible to data threat indirectly too.

On this note, it also pays to keep in mind that a hack aimed at the hosting company can also put your own information at risk. 

Careful with Phishing Email: Phishing emails or messages are created with the aim of duping the recipient of their user credentials. Several times, hackers will take the added effort to create an email account that looks genuine and provide links to ‘log in’ to your account. In most cases, these links lead to hacked websites that host a fake page to obtain your user information. Knowing that this is an ever-growing threat and consciously informing every employee who belongs to a particular network can help save millions in further damage.  

Paying Attention to Overall Website Security: According to an earlier Symantec reports, hacks cost small to medium sized businesses over $ 188,000 on average per year. If this isn’t bothersome enough, more than 60% of these companies were forced to shut shop due to their inability to recover from financial damages. The sad thing is, these organizations could easily have still been operating today if they had security systems in place to prevent cyber-attacks. Constant vigilance is one way of ensuring that your website, data, and network is always shielded from various kinds of malware. 

Other very basic methods include:

Identifying and installing paid anti-virus software in every system that belongs to a particular network.

Before identifying an anti-virus, it helps to identify the kind of viruses your business is going to be most susceptible to. For instance, a banking networks’ security requirements or threat areas would differ from a B2B ecommerce platform. 

Always use and ensure the firewall is on to control traffic into and out of your network. By allowing only required connections, your devices will have reduced exposure to threats. 

Make use of strong passwords that are changed periodically and controlled only by the main administrator. This makes it harder to be hacked. 

End-to-end encryption like SSL or HTTP/2 ensures secure data transfer to it pays to get your website or CMS adequately equipped. 

Up-to-date software helps safeguard against fraud because every update comes with protection against one trigger or other. 

As a rule, B2Bs should check with all software vendors what their processes are with regards to data protection, security emergencies, and prevention of any vulnerabilities.

Terms every B2B Marketer should know of in this Hacking Age Hacking: When an unauthorized person or persons accesses a secure network or system by exploiting vulnerabilities in the system

Data breach: When important business data is either lost, stolen or ransomed 

Ransomware: Ransomware took the world by storm and is not a new term. It is when someone takes control of your network or data and demands a ransom to release it back to you

When it comes to Data Security, New Laws may change the way Data is Collected and used

Europe’s EU-wide privacy rules already serve as a guideline for companies doing business within Europe

The rules help align elements like access to your own shared data, right to portability, right to data deletion from record, and more

This will affect how US marketers handle data privacy issues

These regulations come in the form of GDPR and Data Protection Directive

The regulation has been described as an effort to create a “modern and harmonized data protection framework.”

In effect, this means that all global companies will have to re-examine how they collect, store, manage and deploy customer data

Malware: Malware is short for malicious software and once it hits your network or system can cause unauthorized access or damage 

Virus: Viruses are a type of malware that enters a system or computer without your knowledge to exploit your key information or cause damage to data by wiping it out or worse

The End? Automation and technology are not going to back down and with every new feature, fresh integration and important development, there are a bunch of new age threats waiting to rise from the ashes too. Identifying common vulnerabilities can greatly help businesses ensure better data protection and overall security. Maybe all of this just simply means that it is high time for businesses to spend on hiring key resources like Chief Data Security Officers, just to watch over the safety of their data – a very important element for every business. 

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor

#martech #marketing #technology #business #cmo