We get it. The very thought of a security breach sends shudders quaking through your body. It’s the stuff of nightmares and ulcers, sleepless nights and nervous ticks. In an attempt to calm the stress hormones raging through your bloodstream, you squash the traumatizing thoughts. Anyway, what are the chances a breach will happen at your company? Slim, right? Unfortunately, not. There are multiple ways a security incident can unfold within your business. And whether the breach amounts to a relatively minor bump in the road or a devastating tragedy will have much to do with your level of preparedness. But it’s difficult to reach any level of preparedness while continually pushing associated thoughts to the crevasses of your mind. Businesses plan for sales growth, marketing strategies, and keeping up with industry trends, but too often these same companies overlook an area crucial to future success:  plans to combat a data breach. The financial losses associated with lost data are massive. Although the IBM sponsored Cost of Data Breach Study showed a decline in losses from 2016 to 2017, the impact of such a breach is nothing to sneeze at. The industry’s gold-standard benchmark research, independently conducted by Ponemon Institute, noted that after an increase in 2016 to $158, the average cost of a lost or stolen record fell in 2017 to $141. The global average cost of a data breach fell by 10 percent from 2016 figures to $3.62 million. While the cost per incident has declined, the 2017 study noted greater breaches with a 1.8 percent increase to more than 24,000 records. From where do these costly security breaches originate? Both internal and external threats exist as does an ongoing debate as to which poses the most significant risk to a company’s data. The high-price-tag breaches that grab the media’s attention have, historically, been carried out by outsiders. And these are the threats that traditional security measures address. But more and more, it’s the threat from insiders that have company management scratching their heads. These threats from trained, trusted employees are more difficult to prevent and to detect with routine security measures. Notes Bryan Ware, CEO of Haystax Technologies— “Insider threats represent some of the costliest and potentially most dangerous risks facing organizations today. A malicious insider is often too well concealed to be detected using conventional approaches, and many organizations lack the internal tools to monitor risks associated with unwitting or negligent employees.” A recent Haystax report discovered 74% of organizations questioned “feel vulnerable to insider threats,” with 56% of security professionals certain that “insider threats have become more frequent” over the past year. Next week we’ll delve into the various avenues from which insider threats originate. MPS Technical always has and always will maintain high standards for the job candidates we represent. Our screenings include background checks and drug testing to ensure we are bringing to our clients the highest quality candidates. Contact our office today for a consultation about how we can serve you.