There’s one question every organization needs to be able to answer: What are the company’s specific critical access points? It’s easier asked than answered, and depending on the system, the users, the assets, and a few other factors, critical access varies by organization and use case.

Despite large financial and time-intensive investments into access management tools and cybersecurity solutions, a business’ critical assets still remain vulnerable and prone to attack.

Every 11 seconds, a company falls victim to a ransomware attack. Compromised protected personal data resulted in 1.8 HIPAA privacy violations per day in 2020. The cost of cyber attacks globally in 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, is expected to cost $20 billion.

Understanding critical information, critical access points, and how to best employ critical access management begins with three key aspects: frequency, risk, and urgency.

As technology continues to evolve, cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated. Many organizations focus their cybersecurity efforts only on outsider threats, hence creating more loopholes for insider threats. These companies don’t see the possibility of losing sensitive data due to negligence or the malicious intent of their own people.

It’s hard to know what’s happening with critical access and assets if no one is watching. Access governance can create a secure system, and access controls can add friction, but you don’t know who is actually accessing what unless there are eyes on it.

Access governance is crucial when it comes to securing an organization’s critical access points and assets. But access governance alone isn’t enough. To add another, important, layer of security and mitigate mounting cyber threats, an organization needs to add friction and visibility as well as reduce risks when it comes to access rights.

Health systems today are more vulnerable than ever to data breaches and malicious cybercrime. Regular user access reviews are a key part of securing critical data, but it comes with challenges, costs and potential roadblocks.

63% of organizations don’t have visibility into the level of access and permissions their users have to critical systems. Too many organizations aren’t implementing and enforcing access policies to their most critical assets, like systems, data, networks, infrastructure, and operational technology.

October is cybersecurity awareness month! But what does this mean for your business? With the number of data breaches continuing to skyrocket, 51% of which were tied to third-party vendors, this month-long initiative is the perfect opportunity for your organization to take a closer look at your own cybersecurity infrastructure and strategy.