Data Encryption Softens Phishing Fears

With targeted attacks quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception, companies would be wise to contract their defensive perimeters and employ data security As the number of threat vectors multiplies in the era of social, mobile and cloud computing, cybercriminals have a wide variety of tools at their disposal. Yet as possibilities expand, their focus has only grown more narrow. With targeted attacks quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception, companies would be wise to contract their defensive perimeters and employ data security solutionscloser to the core of operations.

In the era of information accessibility, hackers are finding it easier than ever to collect all the details they need to craft a compelling social engineering attack. Instead of sending out spam emails to thousands of targets hoping that a few will take the bait, more cybercriminals now know the exact link they have to cut to break the security chain. According to ZDNet, approximately one-third of companies have now experienced the loss of financial data, personal records or intellectual property as a result of targeted infiltrations.

With cybercriminals reformulating their preferred modes of attack, IT teams must reform their ways as well. According to the news source, companies should strongly consider encrypting information as opposed to defending their networks as a whole. Data encryption software can be extremely valuable to this end, but it must be supported by smart access control frameworks subject to continuous auditing.

Indeed, the push to pursue expanded encryption strategies is starting to come from outside the IT department in some cases. According to InfoSecurity Magazine, there has been a marked increase in the number of business directors and compliance officers broaching the topic with their CIOs as awareness for the value of data and cost of its exploitation grows.

Education as an asset 
Although phishing attacks are beginning to take on added complexity, employee education is still a building block of effective data security strategies. According to ZDNet, workers must understand where threats commonly come from and which data sets may have the highest perceived value. With that knowledge in hand, they are more likely to handle information assets and respond to network activities with a healthy skepticism.

Finally, IT administrators should also instruct their colleagues on the best practices associated with the data encryption software intended to protect them from the most cleverly disguised attacks. A thorough understanding of the company's key management process, and the logic behind its framework, helps root out communication loopholes that could otherwise be exploited by opportunistic hackers.