5 Myths About Cybersecurity

19.03.2025
Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is undoubtedly a rapidly growing topic. This stems not only from increased hacker activity but also from companies' growing awareness of the value of the information they process in their IT environments. Building a security system is a long and complex process, and choosing the wrong path early on can lead to numerous complications in the future.

While ensuring an adequate level of security is the responsibility of every company, finding specific and verified information in the maze of marketing is a considerable challenge. As a result, many choose to adopt security strategies based on their own feelings, general assumptions, or the scant data available online. While such actions sometimes prove effective, they contribute to the creation of numerous myths that are worth addressing.

1. My business is too small and doesn't process valuable data – why would anyone attack me?

The scale and diversity of cyberattacks make every company extremely vulnerable to threats from the virtual world. Attacks can be aimed at stealing valuable data, such as employee personal data or customer information. However, increasingly frequent are campaigns conducted by cybercriminals to prevent victims from continuing their work or influence potential customers' assessment of the organization. The size of the company and the scope of data held are of little importance in assessing the risk of an attack.

2. Cybersecurity is the IT department's problem! This doesn't concern me!

The tools used by IT departments to build security systems can counteract many known threats, provide detailed insight into the infrastructure, and ensure high availability of services provided to employees. However, their effectiveness depends largely on the practices employed by users. Every employee who uses IT systems in their daily activities can protect the company from an attack, or through poor decisions, lead to an incident. Therefore, building cybersecurity should be viewed as a shared responsibility of the entire company, not just a subset of it.

3. Procedures and regulations are complicated and of little consequence. We need to focus on security tools!

Properly constructed documentation, such as an information security management system, internal policies for handling a potential incident, or a disaster recovery plan, form the basis for actions taken in emergency situations. Even the most technologically advanced security system, if not supported by appropriate internal regulations, may not only fail to achieve its intended effectiveness but also pose a threat to the integrity of the company's data.

The organizational security layer is no less important than the security tools used in the hardware or software infrastructure. It should not be underestimated.

4. I change my passwords frequently, so I'm safe.

Each of us strives to effectively secure access to our accounts in various systems. However, regularly changing passwords that have not been compromised is not a good practice. It has been proven that users who frequently need to modify their credentials tend to simplify their subsequent variations and use patterns to make it easier to remember the new string of characters. The strength of the passwords "Firma2023" and "Firma2024" can be considered similar, and cracking them would take a similar amount of time. Therefore, instead of focusing on frequently changing credentials, it's better to ensure their quality.

5. I have all my IT in the cloud, so I don't have to worry about security – the cloud provider does it for me.

The widespread use of cloud solutions within an organization is probably the right direction, allowing us to optimize costs and efficiency and better adapt IT to the company's current needs. Cloud service providers provide a certain standard of protection, but the service user is responsible for the integrity and security of the data processed within the tools provided. It's worth noting that, according to the latest recommendations, critical services and systems for the enterprise should not be separated from the production center, as such an architecture makes their availability dependent on another factor – the quality of the internet connection.

Summary

Unfortunately, there is much more false information regarding not only protection methods but also the scale and types of threats. However, the ones described above should be considered the most popular and, at the same time, the most harmful. Those responsible for cybersecurity within an organization must combine expert knowledge of the technical aspects of IT development, legal regulations, and psychological topics to effectively minimize the risk of social engineering attacks. This broad spectrum of issues makes it worthwhile to consider external support early on in the security investment planning phase, as such assistance can prove invaluable and bring numerous benefits.


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