Just how important is computer security and protecting your data?

Computer security is the process of preventing and detecting the unauthorized entry into your computer or the use of it. Prevention measures help you stop hackers from accessing any part of your computer system. Detection helps you to determine whether or not someone attempted to break into your system, if they were successful, and what they may have done.

Computers have become an extension of everything we do at work and at home as well as our personal finances, banking, investing, shopping, and communicating with others. You may not consider your communications as top secret but you certainly do not want strangers reading your emails or social media private chats, using your computer to attack other systems, sending forged emails from your computer, or stealing personal information on your computer to steal from your finances.

Actually, hackers do not care about your identity. Often they want to gain control of your computer so they can use it to launch attacks on other computer systems. However, if they do find out you have good finances, they will steal your money. But, having control of your computer gives hackers the ability to hide their actual location as they launch attacks against high-profile computer systems such as government or financial systems.

Another worse scenario is that since hackers can hide their actual location, during an investigation by authorities, it is your computer that shows up as the IP address source. This shows that internet security and data protection is the most important aspect that everyone using the internet should understand.

The true cost of losing your data

Lost data means lost assets

Anyone running a business or company knows that all its data and information is the bread and butter of the products and services. Once this data is violated, stolen, or lost, the business or company loses future generated business, security, and confidential customer information where eventually the business loses the customers. This shows how important data is an asset.

Lost business reputation

All businesses exist to provide goods or services to customers. Even by simply buying a single item with a credit card, your customers are trusting your business with sensitive information. However, any kind of data leak, even unintentional from hackers, could easily affect your business reputation. All forms of data leaks and security breaches are a threat to the business because money is at stake, and this is the money of your customers. A lack of computer security means all your customers and your business are at risk, and as a consequence also the future of the business. Remember that reputation takes years of trust to build up but only takes hours to be destroyed should your data be stolen.

Computer security and data protection is by no means easy to achieve. However, compared to the potential unwanted consequences, it is definitely worth the effort to secure your business data. Business owners need to go the extra mile to make sure their data is always secured. Data security is an ongoing journey, never a one stop destination.

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This entry was posted by Staff Writer on Saturday, June 30, 2018 at 6:10:08 AM and is filed under Computer Security & Data Protection.

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