Local businesses are bracing for cyberattacks and computer breaches, according to a new survey.
In fact, 59% of businesses and organizations in the Orange County area believe their company will be the victim of a breach or attack, according to the survey by the Travelers Institute.
Nearly half of those surveyed, 49%, have already been the victim of a cyber event, Institute President Joan Woodward said in presenting the results earlier this month. The institute is the public policy division of insurance giant Travelers.
“Based on the data we’ve seen, we know that business leaders in OC care about cyber hygiene,” Woodward told the Business Journal on Oct. 11.
Maximizing system security with multifactor authentication (MFA) is one of the five best practices.
“According to Microsoft, those who use MFA have a 99.9% chance of protecting their data, so this is something we really like to push among business leaders and the people we serve,” she said.
100 Leaders Surveyed
Travelers surveyed 100 business leaders in the Orange County area from Aug. 12 to Aug. 23, covering company sizes from one employee to more than 15,000 workers.
Some 86% of business leaders said that having the proper cybersecurity tools in place is critical to the well-being of their organization. Here’s what they’re doing in the Orange County area to protect their data:
• 80% use data backup processes
• 68% use firewall/virus protection
• 67% require computer password updates
• 56% use multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• 56% train and test their employees regularly on data security
• 55% have had a cyber risk assessment
• 37% use Endpoint Detection and response (EDR)