Advanced technologies enabled us to collect tons of data and use them for business purposes. Certain mobile apps collect users contacts, Facebook friends lists and log in locations. Same goes for social networks like Facebook, who store peoples likes and interests and use them for audience targeting on their ads platforms. Generally, companies often store big data on their servers, and this huge lists of files often contain various sensitive information, including their customers personal info and credit card numbers.
Thats why companies need to keep customers data safe, especially taking into consideration the significant rise of cybercrime rates. Attacks on big companies were extremely popular last year, and it looks like hackers directed all their time and energy in stealing credit card data from large e-commerce websites and other profitable businesses.
These are some of the worst data breaches that happened recently:
- JPMorgan Chase – attack compromised more than 83 million accounts;
- Sony Pictures – last years attack that deleted information from several data centers and caused cancellation of The Interview.
- Home Depot – Attackers compromised more than 56 million credit cards and caused $62 million of damage to the company;
- Ashley Madison – hacktivist group leaked more than 25 gigabytes of website data including, private accounts, email addresses, private messages, etc.
- Goodwill Industries – cyber-attack affected several charitable retailer stores across United States.
Security Problems Big Data Can Cause
A company whose networks contain 20,000 IP addresses, needs to process more than 50 terabytes of data each day. All this data needs to be securely handled and stored, for lowering the possibility of a data breach that can cause a huge hit on companys reputation.
As we saw in previous paragraphs, companies who store big piles of data are the best targets for cyber criminals. Thats why entrepreneurs need to implement complicated security measures for guarding their customers data. This means the end of under-skilled security teams who are protecting companys data with outdated and unpatched security software.
Security Solutions Big Data Analysis Provides
On the other hand big data analytic tools are becoming more advanced and intelligent each day, and their analytic capabilities can also be used in dealing with cyber security threats. Automated intelligence from big data analytic tools is quickly becoming contextual and situational aware. It is also capable of connecting several different security systems and informing them about the detected threats in real time.
Heres an example from an ordinary companys computer. When a worker opens an email and downloads a file infected with Trojan, and a firewall or some other anti-virus tool detects the threat, it shares this information in a big data repository thats unique for the whole companys network. This way, security tools on all company computers have the information and are able to block emails from that specific sender, or mark them unsafe.
Same thing happens when a companys employee downloads a malware file from an unsecure website. Development of big data analytics and pairing it with standard anti-virus programs enabled developers to create new generation security software, thats highly efficient for guarding big corporate systems.
Other Precaution Measures
Since security software supported by big data analysis is still at its conceptual stage and it is used only by governments and top corporate players, entrepreneurs should find other ways to protect their companys information stash. These are some security measures they should implement:
- Use encryption – in most cases cyber criminals cant benefit from piles of encrypted data they stole. Thats why entrepreneurs should use adequate software to encrypt all the data they are storing. Encrypted cloud storage services like pCloud are always better than cloud services that dont offer this option.
- Save only necessary data – although piles of customers personal and credit card data may seem like a great material for companys marketing experts, companies need to restrain from saving consumers data thats not necessary for running their business;
- Request stronger passwords – passwords are the first line of defense from cybercrime. Website login pages should always ask for stronger passwords and advise customers to choose passphrases instead of regular passwords.
- Provide security training for employees – in most cases malware enters the companys network through company computers, smartphones or tablets that are used for private purposes. Employees often read their private emails, browse social network profiles and download torrents on their company computers, which can easily endanger a companyt’s cyber security. Thats why entrepreneurs need to provide them with proper cyber security training that will teach them about the risks that such actions involve.
Bottom Line
Big data is definitely going to change cyber security in the future. We can expect piles of data to grow at the fastest possible pace, which will also increase the risks of data breaches. Big data technology development will enable developers to construct more complex security system that will use benefits of big data technology to prevent cyber attacks that put both customers and the companies at risk.