For many, creating a password starts with something easy. A pet’s name, a birthday, some even simply settle for the simple “password.” The truth is, any easy to remember password is likely easy to guess.

We live in a world that wants to connect everything and anything that it can to the Internet, and because of this, it seems that everything we buy today is “smart”— our fridges, our phones, and even our wearable devices.

At the beginning of 2018, experts in the cybersecurity field predicted that bad actors attacking surfaces would continue to be a huge trend. Along the same lines, it’s widely accepted that hackers will take the easiest route available to either breach data, place a form of malware on a network, or just cause disruption.

With the attack on the City of Atlanta, hackers targeting critical infrastructure shouldn’t come as a shock. Long gone are the days of hackers only targeting credit card information; they are looking to disrupt the things we take for granted—and right now hackers are feeding off third-party access to critical infrastructure.

If you have already moved on from the Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor breach that broke earlier this week affecting 5 million credit cards, don’t worry, another breach happened to other well-known corporations. This breach affected more people and their personal information, and it all stemmed from a third party.

Grab a burger at Sonic or roast beef sandwich from Arby’s and watch a new episode streaming on Netflix in your hotel room—what do these consumer-related activities have in common? Each retail business was hacked through a third party connection in the last year.

A recent study indicated that healthcare data breaches are at a four-year low. However, this statistic is pretty misleading. Why? Because so far, the number of breaches are pretty on-par with past years.

E-commerce gives consumers convenience, selection, and the belief that their online purchase is secure. Regulations developed by credit card companies require business owners to ensure their point of sale (POS) and other network capabilities are maintained in a secure environment.

Rapidly developing technology means consumers in the finance industry look for fast, personalized service. These new opportunities drive business development—but they also drive the risk of data loss and non-compliance. In late 2017, consumer credit agency and data aggregator, Equifax, revealed a severe data loss caused by sloppy security measures.

Do you know how many vendors are accessing your network? Is someone in your organization following vendor movements in your system, and controlling their logins?