Cybersecurity protects the integrity of a computer’s internet-connected systems, hardware, software and data from cyber-attacks. Without a security plan in place, hackers can access your computer system and misuse your personal, customer, and business information.
With such a high dependency on computers, cybercrime is a serious risk to businesses, which is why a commercial insurance program that includes cyber liability insurance is so important. Without proper security, your business is functioning at high risk for cyber-attacks.
Cybersecurity is essential to govern the conduct and manners of interacting with computer systems from suspicious behavior. It can be broken down into four main categories: infrastructure, application security, the network, and the cloud.
Critical Infrastructure
Critical infrastructure security consists of the cyber-physical systems that modern societies rely on. Common examples of critical infrastructure:
- Electricity grid
- Water purification
- Traffic lights
- Shopping centers
- Hospitals
Organizations with responsibility for any critical infrastructures should perform due diligence to understand the vulnerabilities and protect their business against them. The security and resilience of this critical infrastructure are vital to our society’s safety and well-being. Also, organizations that rely on critical infrastructure at all, should develop a contingency plan by evaluating how an attack on critical infrastructure they depend on might affect them and secure commercial insurance.
Application
Application security is a must-have security measure to protect your systems. Application security uses software and hardware methods to tackle external threats that can arise in the development stage of an application. Applications are much more accessible over networks, causing the adoption of security measures during the development phase to be an imperative phase of the project.
Types of application security include antivirus programs, firewalls, and encryption programs. These help to ensure that unauthorized access is prevented. Companies can also detect sensitive data assets and protect them through specific application security processes attached to these data sets.
Network
As cybersecurity is concerned with outside threats, network security guards against the unauthorized intrusion of your internal networks due to malicious intent. Network security ensures that internal networks are secure by protecting the infrastructure and inhibiting access to it. Examples of implementation include extra logins, new passwords, antivirus programs, anti-spyware software, encryption, firewalls, and monitored internet access.
Cloud
Improved cybersecurity is the main reason why the cloud is taking over. Cloud security is a software-based security tool for protecting and monitoring cloud resource data. The myth flying around cloud computing is that it’s less secure than traditional approaches. People tend to believe that data is more secure when stored on physical servers and systems personally own and control. However, it has been proven through cloud security that control does not mean security and accessibility matters more than the physical location of your data. Cloud computing security is similar to traditional on-premise data centers, only without the time and costs of maintaining huge data facilities, and the risk of security breaches is minimal.
About Haughn & Associate
Founded by Michael Haughn in 1986, Haughn & Associates is a full-service, family-owned, independent insurance agency based out of Dublin, Ohio. H&A strives to provide the best possible price and unique insurance solutions across a myriad of industries, including construction, IT, Habitation & Commercial Property, Agriculture, and Engineering. Devoted to providing the best of business insurance, life and disability insurance, personal insurance, employee benefits, and bonds, H&A is proof that success lies in long-standing client relations and satisfaction. To learn more about how H&A can be of service to you, contact us at (877) 802-2278.
