Industries
In recent years, the most common targets for cyberattacks include organizations in the healthcare, retail, technology, and media industries. As these industries embrace digital transformation to enhance efficiency and customer experience, they face escalating threats to their data integrity. The unique nature of data processed by each sector necessitates tailored security measures to address industry-specific risks.
Healthcare
Major data risks:
Exposure of PHI, PII, ransomware
Compliance:
HIPAA, GDPR, HITECH, others
Healthcare organizations are attractive targets for cyberattacks due to the sensitive patient data they hold. Attacks can have severe implications for patient care and data security. Major risks include exposure or theft of sensitive data, ransomware attacks, sabotage of medical equipment, and disruptions to healthcare provision.
Ransomware attacks in the healthcare sector have been steadily increasing. A breach of sensitive medical information can have both financial and reputational consequences for healthcare providers, not to mention the risks to patients. Compliance with regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, HITECH, and New York’s cybersecurity rules for hospitals is essential to protect patient data.
Data Security Challenges and Solutions for Healthcare Providers
- Proliferation of sensitive patient data:
Discover where sensitive patient data resides, and ensure only authorized access to it.
- Ransomware attacks:
Identify, prioritize, and remediate data risks, and prevent, detect, and mitigate ransomware attacks via the Cohesity integration. - Regulatory compliance:
Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements including HIPAA, GDPR, HITECH, New York state’s recently announced cybersecurity rules for hospitals, and others.
Retail
Major data risks:
Exposure of PII, ransomware
Compliance:
PCI, GDPR, SOX, others
Retail organizations are lucrative targets for cybercriminals looking to collect payment card data. The substantial amount of customer, employee and vendor data that retail companies typically store, process, and analyze also makes them a target, including for ransomware attacks. With data stored at point of sale and at central data stores, managing data access is another concern.
For retail companies that provide healthcare products or services, the concern extends to safeguarding Protected Health Information (PHI). The risks are further heightened by the expanded attack surface resulting from remote work arrangements and the migration of data to cloud systems.
Data Security Challenges and Solutions for Retail Companies
- Payment card theft:
Identify and classify sensitive card data (as well as customer, employee and vendor data) across all environments and identify and manage key risks. - Ransomware attacks:
Prevent, detect, and mitigate ransomware attacks via the Cohesity integration. - Unauthorized access:
Identify who has access to data and enforce the principle of least privilege to minimize the attack surface. - Regulatory compliance:
Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements including PCI-DSS, HIPPA, CCPA, and other governmental and industry regulations.
Technology
Major data risks:
Exposure of PII
Compliance:
GDPR, SOX, others
In the technology industry, the growing importance of data comes with a significant increase in cybersecurity threats. Companies must protect sensitive information, intellectual property and maintain the trust of customers and stakeholders.
Technology companies are often leaders in cloud adoption, which increases their attack surface. They are also subject to mandatory disclosure of material breaches, which is not only costly but also could lead to negative publicity, disruption of business operations, loss of customer or partner confidence, diversion of management’s attention, and governmental investigations.
Data Security Challenges and Solutions for Tech Firms
- Data proliferation:
Discover where sensitive data resides, and ensure only authorized access to it. - Cyber attack:
Identify, prioritize, and remediate data risks across on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments. - Regulatory compliance:
Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements including GDPR, SOX, and others.
Media
Major data risks:
Exposure of PII, ransomware
Compliance:
GDPR, CCPA, COPPA, U.K. and California age-appropriate design codes
Media companies are often targeted for their digital assets, intellectual property, and programming content that is a large part of their product. Copyright infringement (piracy) leads to loss of revenue and content value, and attacks are enabled by attackers’ ready access to low-cost digital storage and bandwidth.
Media companies also hold sensitive subscriber data that must be protected and that is subject to regulatory compliance. With large, diverse teams and third-party providers, media companies increasingly rely on cloud services for production as well as distribution, which expands their attack surface.
Data Security Challenges and Solutions for Media Companies
- Visibility of sensitive data:
Discover and classify sensitive data, including intellectual property. - Unauthorized access:
Identify who has access to data and enforce the principle of least privilege to minimize the attack surface. - Cyberattacks:
Identify, prioritize, and remediate data risks across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. - Regulatory compliance:
Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements including GDPR, CCPA, COPPA, the U.K. and California age-appropriate design codes, and others.
