New Year, New Chance to Rethink Your Application Security

The ever-looming threat of a cyberattack may seem oppressive, but there is a lot you can do to prevent your company from being victimized.

From Yahoo to Wendy’s, it wasn’t hard to find news about cybercrime and security breaches in 2016. You could open a newspaper, close your eyes and turn to a random page, and you likely would have found a story about some major Fortune 500 company getting exploited through some unforeseen vulnerability in their IT infrastructure.

Cybersecurity by the Numbers

People in the security industry joke that there are only two types of companies: those that have been breached and those that just don’t know it yet. While this statement is a bit facetious, the fact of the matter is that cyberattacks are happening more frequently and they are costing businesses even more money to address. Between fines, brand damage, security overhauls and downtime, a major breach can cost companies millions of dollars.

A report from Symantec, a provider of cybersecurity and products and solutions, illustrates the threat from security breaches is still growing rapidly as well. Some of the big statistics include:

• 318 major security breaches in 2015 (up from 253 in 2013)
• 54 zero-day vulnerabilities in 2015 (up from 23 in 2013)
• 429 million identities exposed, with an average of 1.3 million per breach
• 62% of breach victims were small to mid-size businesses (up from 30% since 2013)

For some companies, it’s easy to get into the mindset that a cyberattack is inevitable at this point due to the widespread nature of incidents. However, you need to avoid that mindset at all costs—while some businesses do get breached despite extensive security precautions, many more fall victim due to simple ignorance or negligence. The average cost of a breach for a small business is $86,000, so if you think it’s too expensive to put the necessary precautions in place, think twice.

Taking a Proactive Approach to Cybersecurity

It’s pivotal you take a proactive approach to managing the security of your company. While this may sound like a daunting task that requires huge budget increases, technological overhauls and sweeping policy changes that could disrupt how your business functions, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Many businesses fall into the trap of putting superficial measures in place and then leaving it at that—effectively, they use $10 locks to protect their million-dollar assets. In most scenarios, security can be improved dramatically by simply spending budget more efficiently and prioritizing key risks more effectively. Businesses often have low-hanging fruit that can be taken care of easily, such as keeping their software and tools updated or deploying basic security policies and best practices.

If you use Progress OpenEdge, there are also specific steps you can take to improve the security of your application. We recently released a whitepaper and held a roundtable, both pertaining to application security, so check them out if you haven’t already and get a jump on your 2017 business security strategy.