10 Cyber Security Myths You Shouldn’t Believe

It is said, everything has two sides, bad and good, pros and cons and the same goes with everybody’s favorite technology. As it has advanced with time, there has also been an increase in instances that involve cybercrime. Unfortunately, the importance of Cyber Security has augmented and increased misconceptions that prevent us from being totally protected from these vicious threats.

Here in this article, we will discuss the famous myths which will make you understand Cyber Security better.

Myth No. 1 –

I Am Too Cautious to Get Affected:

You must be thinking that you check all the links that you visit, and you are too careful to get victimized. Wrong! your browser itself is the biggest vulnerability. You must have heard, recently, the biggest cyberattacks were planned after taking the advantage of your susceptible browser. Visiting a suspicious link is all it takes to hand over your system to hackers but this is not it, now you might get affected by visiting a legit website as well.

See Also: How Small Businesses Can Improve Cyber Security With Available Resources

Myth No. 2 –

 We Are Small Firm, We Can’t Be the Target:

Don’t be delusional! Anybody and everybody can get influenced by the cyber bullies. You need to be very careful when it comes to IT security. According to the statistics for 2016, companies those who experienced Cyberattack had 31% of small sized and medium companies in the list.

Myth No. 3 –

I Have the Best Anti-Virus Installed, I Got It Covered –

Antivirus can be used as a precautionary measure but that doesn’t mean it is enough. As Antivirus is outdated and can only detect those viruses whose signatures is known to the software. As we know, every now and then, new spyware and ransomware, worms are developed. Most of the time, the software or social media website serves as a medium to spread the threat. Recently, Hackers used Google Doc and famous video converter HandBrake to spread a malware to a user’s system.

Staying alert is the only option!

Myth No. 4 –

Threats Are Completely Overrated; It’s Not a Big Deal!

Taking the cyber threats lightly is the biggest mistake.  The next statement might be an eye-opener for you. According to McAfee Labs’ Threats Report, “The average mid-sized organization (1,000–3,000 employees) encounters 11–20 incidents a day. Larger organizations (3,001–5,000 employees) are slightly busier, with the median at 21–30 incidents per day. The largest organizations (more than 5,000 employees) are busiest, with the median at 31–50 incidents daily.”

This might have cleared this misconception that nobody is safe from these attacks.

Myth No. 5 –

Outsiders Are the Bad Guys

Not only outsiders, but the people in your company can also be plotting against you. Many of the incidents happened showed intentional or unintentional involvement of an insider.

Be careful always, be it an insider or an outsider!

Myth No. 6 –

Strong Passwords Resolve All the Issues.

Having a strong password is a good thing but this should not be the only step. It should be a part of security measures taken to protect your identity. However, you can also add two-factor authentications to it to make it impregnable. Frequent request to change the password would only make your employees tend to forget the passwords more often. This would make them desperate to jot it down at someplace, which is again not safe.

Myth No. 7 –

Cyber Security is for IT Department to Handle, No Need for Management to Jump In

Setting a strong security network is IT department’s job but to lay policies and regulations like written cybersecurity plan to unify the security posture is management’s. A vital part of the posture should be to ensure that staff is proficient and aware of emerging security risks. Moreover, management must play an active role to support the cybersecurity program evidently.

Myth No. 8 –

Our Systems Are Disconnected from The Internet, No Risks!

Please don’t think that your systems are disconnected from Internet, you are protected. No, there are certainly different ways to get victimized by the hackers. People working inside your firewall with their devices like laptops, USB drives, external drives etc. pose risks to be exposed to malware or another threat.

Myth No. 9–

Hired Cyber Security Experts, Now We are Secure!

It is good to get good IT professionals for your company, but this should not be it.  As there is a serious shortage of a good and responsible IT professional, we need to find another way to fill the vacant positions. Instead of looking outside, you can always train and work on potential personnel inside your company to make them the future tech experts.

Myth No. 10 –

No Money to Spend on Cyber Security Plan

It is one of the biggest misconceptions among people, Cyber Security can be implemented cost-effectively. If we neglect the importance of the implementation, we would be opening doors for security risks for the organization, which would eventually end up costing more than money.

So, the mantra to protect the organization should be –

Alleviate, anticipate risks through a security program and manage the organizational risk.

Each entity should understand the importance of cybersecurity and therefore should implement cybersecurity program. Moreover, the program should be backed up with impregnable policies and regulations to support it.