The ALS Group Risk Management Articles

Most companies today opt to distribute their employees’ W-2 tax forms electronically; either through email or some type of download service. Because these forms contain a good deal of Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”), such as name, address, social security number and salary information – cyber thieves are using several simple, yet, tried-and-true methods to fraudulently obtain them.

When the front lines of IT security fail and a cyber breach occurs, businesses often rely on insurance to reduce the often extreme financial impact associated with the breach. Policies are usually written to ensure that the insured recovers extra expenses incurred and are covered for fines and penalties placed on the company by regulatory agencies.

The year 2016 is turning out to be a record one for data breaches, and cybercrime won’t be slowing down any time soon.  According to global digital security firm Gemalto, nearly five billion private records have been exposed globally since 2013. Data breaches were up 15% in the first half of 2016 compared to the prior six months.

Does the threat of Ransomware crippling your organization’s network and operations keep you up at night? At this point, it kind of should. However, there’s a lot your CISO and IT staff could be doing to mitigate the threat and help you sleep a bit more soundly.