What types of data do hackers look for?
Some businesses believe that they don’t need to worry about getting hacked because they have nothing of value to be stolen. However, this mindset is what’s pushing hackers further into stealing data from them. And most of the time, business owners would only take action after they’ve already been hit by a cyberattack.
Personal Data
This includes Social Security numbers, financial information, birth dates, and other sensitive personal data. To hackers, these are quite valuable; in 2019 alone, there were 13 million recorded identity theft incidents.
While passport information sells for the most amount of money, Social Security numbers are the most valuable to hackers, as these can be used for tax fraud, opening credit accounts, and other malicious activities. Your business may not collect Social Security numbers from your clients, but their financial data may be easily stolen.
Digital infrastructure
Hackers are aware of the high costs of a proper IT infrastructure, so they will resort to stealing another business’s IT system to save money. Potential indicators of such an attack include network slowdowns, rapid decrease of storage space, and unknown devices connecting to your network. Over time, this will result in additional costs and lower business productivity.