Question

This is about leadership.

Please find a piece of CURRENT NEWS, analyze it and write up your suggested five lessons in sequence and priority from the most important to the less important that you as a leader would want to learn from. (400-500 words).

Answer 1

Answer-

Security is important to any organization, there is no denying that. As we read in a Reuters blog from 2010, the 5 lessons businesses can learn from Wikileaks, those 5 lessons are things to be learned by any organization. Consumers will often feel that they are being cautious in where they spend money, only using credit cards with organizations that they trust, and think that their information will not be stolen. This is a false sense of security however, once the information is presented to someone, it is out of that person’s control and into another group’s all together.

Scott Ikeda of CPO Magazine wrote an article this past march called “New Data Breach Trends: Small Business Identity Records Now Target #1 for Hackers”. This article discusses the dangers small businesses face, explaining that incidents of attacks in 2018 were up 424% from 2017. Ikeda reports that the organization 4iQ described that their research found nearly 15 billion identity records were exposed. This article also provides 5 lessons to be learned for any organization, from most to least, we get the following.

1. Large or Small, always at risk, evaluate yourself

Understanding that regardless of the size of your business, you will always be at risk is the number one importance. With that realization you will have a better idea of how to evaluate the level of risk your organization faces. Look to what services you offer and the data you keep of your clients is important. If you are an ice cream shop that only uses a credit card machine and you do not retain any of your customer information, the amount of security you will need is different from a contracting company that installs flooring.

2. Upgrade your security

Often people will purchase a product and they will keep the product as is, never change a thing. You buy a hammer to hit a nail into aboard. That stands true until something happens and the hammer breaks. Technology is not like that however, as soon as you buy something, it is often outdated within a year. We see this with the cell phones we buy. Security systems are no different. Often small businesses won’t have the extra funds to continuously upgrade their security, but this is one of those things that they will not want to let go too far behind.

3. Invest in protection

Ikeda said it best in his article, “some businesses may not have the budget for a cybersecurity contract, it may make financial sense to invest in ID theft response and monitoring services (and insurance). This is another option that could work for an organization. Those who can afford both would do better, but this is an option.

4. Train your staff

Just like large businesses, it is important to train your staff. When running a business, unless everything is done by one person, it is essential to make sure your staff understands and knows the importance of keeping your own and customer information secure.

5. Report any data breaches

Again, with most, they feel it won’t happen to them, however, plan for it just in case. Make sure everything is reported promptly to the proper groups and authorities. The sooner it is reported, the sooner it can be enacted.