October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Since 2004, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) have been working to raise awareness about the dangers of poor cybersecurity. 

As a leading data lineage platform, MANTA plays a role in keeping organizations secure. Cybersecurity is always at the forefront of our minds. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the importance of cybersecurity and share how data lineage platforms like MANTA keep organizations protected by enhancing their cybersecurity governance framework.

Why Cybersecurity Matters

Cybersecurity Risks Are Growing

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 2,084 ransomware complaints, resulting in more than $16M in losses in the first half of 2021 alone. These threats are only expected to grow. By 2025, Gartner predicts that 40% of boards will dedicate a cybersecurity committee to combat rapidly-developing cybersecurity risks. 

It’s not just the number of incidents that are growing; the cost of a breach is growing, too. Statista reported the average cost of a data breach reached $9.44M in 2022—the highest average in history.

Types of Cybersecurity Threats

There are dozens of different cybersecurity threats that organizations must identify and combat. We explain the most common types of cybersecurity threats below. 

Malware is any form of software that harms your infrastructure. It can include worms, viruses, Trojans, and spyware.

Ransomware is a type of malware. During a ransomware attack, an organization’s files and data are held “hostage” until a company pays a ransom to the hackers. 

Social engineering is an attack where hackers trick users to gain access to applications or sensitive information like passwords. 

Phishing is a form of social engineering. During a phishing attack, hackers pose as a trusted person or organization by creating fraudulent emails, texts, or other messages.

Spear phishing is a phishing attack that targets a specific user, organization, or business.

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) are attacks where hackers flood a system, website, or server with messages, connection requests, or packets in an attempt to crash the system. 

Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are long-term targeted attacks where a hacker infiltrates a system and slowly collects data and sensitive information while remaining undetected. 

Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks happen when a hacker intercepts private company communications to steal data. 

Benefits of Cybersecurity

Organizations are already motivated to avoid attacks. After all, no one wants to pay a ransom or lose critical business data. But cybersecurity offers more than just protection from hackers. It also helps organizations in three key business areas.

Improved Recovery Time

According to Statista, the average time for organizations to recover after a ransomware attack was 20 days in Q4 of 2021. That is 20 dayso of being unable toaccess critical files and applications. This can amount to millions of dollars in losses before a ransom payment is even delivered. 

A holistic cybersecurity plan doesn’t just account for preventing breaches—it also contains plans for how to recover quickly (and decrease losses) if one does occur. 

Regulatory Compliance

Regardless of industry, regulatory fines are getting more expensive. In 2020 alone, banks were fined $14.2B for non-compliance, according to a study by Finbold. Healthcare is not faring better: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations can cost up to $50,000 per violation.

Cybersecurity includes regulatory compliance, but avoiding fines is only part of the benefit. Being compliant is itself a benefit; regulations exist to protect consumers, assets, and organizations. By obeying regulatory guidelines, you ensure the proper protocols are being observed to reduce the risk of data breaches, privacy violations, and more. 

Increased Trust from Customers, Partners, & Stakeholders

Poor security is ranked second on Deloitte’s list of organizational reputation risks. When an organization fails to protect its customers’ data, those customers no longer trust them with their money or information.

Most C-suite executives understand the importance of cybersecurity. In fact, 88% say they are focusing on reputation risk as a key business challenge.

How Data Lineage Can Help You Stay Cybersecure

Save Time & Money

In Accenture’s annual survey of 4,744 global respondents, most data professionals (81%) said that “staying ahead of attackers is a constant battle and the cost is unsustainable.”

Hackers are after one thing: data. Without an understanding of where your data is and how it moves through your environment, the task of protecting it can be incredibly costly and time-consuming. Data lineage reduces these costs by automatically scanning your entire environment to build information-packed data flows that show you the point of origin of your data and how it transforms as it is moved.

Automated lineage discovery puts an end to the costly, lengthy, manual processes of lineage collection and updating. On average, MANTA customers save between $5M and $15M in the initial phase of lineage implementation.

Identify Your Protect Surface & Implement Zero Trust

Data governance is the act of defining where data lives and who has access to it. In the modern enterprise, that means implementing Zero Trust: a security model based on the principle that no user should be trusted by default.

Gartner predicts 30% of organizations will adopt Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) models by 2024.

The first step of Palo Alto’s Zero Trust Methodology is defining your protect surface: the most critical data, applications, and assets in your organization. This is what will be given the highest priority in the event of an attack.

But how can you identify your protect surface without knowing what data is stored there and how it is moved? In large enterprises, it’s often impossible to build a comprehensive data flow without the assistance of automated data lineage.

MANTA provides a complete image of end-to-end lineage adjusted to every user’s technical understanding. This helps increase data transparency and drive trust in data, allowing you to easily identify your protect surface.

Meet or Exceed Regulatory Compliance Standards

Maintaining an effective cybersecurity program is already a large undertaking for enterprises. However, organizations that must comply with regulations from multiple jurisdictions and regulators struggle even more. Compliance regulations like the GDPR, CCPA, and PCI DSS exist to protect users and organizations from cyber threats. Non-compliance can result in tens of millions of dollars in fines. 

Data lineage platforms like MANTA provide a complete overview of the regulated data being processed by your organization. This helps establish a comprehensive audit trail and builds assurance that all regulated data has been accounted for. 

Get Started with MANTA

October is almost over, but it’s never too late to improve your cybersecurity. MANTA is an intuitive, automated data lineage platform with more than 50 out-of-the-box scanners. Learn how MANTA can help you build trust in data while saving time and money. Book a demo today.

[button] Book a Demo https://getmanta.com/request-demo/ 

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