‍Cybersecurity audits are essential for any organization to review, analyze, and update its current IT infrastructure, information security policies (ISP), and overall cybersecurity risk management protocols. Audits are a critical part of information security and should be performed annually to ensure that new policies are implemented properly, potential vulnerabilities are identified, and the school maintains compliance with regulatory standards.

The rapid increase of cybersecurity challenges in recent years, such as growing ransomware attacks, has forced the US to devise new mandatory regulations. These requirements are aimed to help combat cybercrime by increasing organizations’ level of cybersecurity capabilities. Complying with these regulations is necessary to keep organizations accountable for their mandatory security posture.

The risk of a data breach is exceptionally high for financial organizations. Hackers recognize the high value financial data has on the dark web. Other cybercriminals pay significant amounts to get their hands on customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) and commit lucrative cybercrimes, like identity theft and insurance fraud. One of the most common ways cybercriminals gain access to this data is by exploiting data leaks.

Third-party breaches have become a common phenomenon in the modern cyber threat landscape. In 2021, the Ponemon Insitute estimated that 51% of organizations were impacted by third-party breaches. The 2022 report found that data breach damage costs associated with third-party vulnerabilities rose from US$ 4.33 million in 2021 to US$ 4.55 million in 2022.

Let’s face it, information technology experts are usually not enthusiastic writers. So when it comes to creating an executive report, cybersecurity staff aren’t exactly pushing each other over to get this exciting writing task complete. Instead, it keeps getting delayed, day by day, until the night before its submission. Many get stuck on the executive summary section, obsessing over its perfection.

Data leaks occur when organizations fail to implement proper cybersecurity measures, causing sensitive data and other personally identifiable information (PII) to be exposed to the public. In most cases, data leaks occur due to internal human errors, an oversight by the IT committee, or a lack of strong security practices.

Large-scale data breaches are flooding headlines, as major security incidents like ransomware and supply chain attacks become more strategic by the day. Organizations that fail to address their cybersecurity blindspots in such a volatile threat landscape will inevitably suffer a data breach.

According to the IBM Security Data Breach Report of 2022, India's average data breach cost is at a record high of Rs 17.6 crore (Rs 175 million, which is around $2.2 million) for the fiscal year of 2022. This is a 6.6% increase from last year's Rs 16.5 crore and an uptick of 25% from the average cost of Rs 14 crore in 2020, as stated by IBM analysts.