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Every October National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCAM) is held to promote awareness of cybersecurity issues and allow government and other agencies to provide resources to the general public so they may be safer and more secure online.

The theme this year is Own IT. Secure IT. Protect IT. and the focus will be on key areas including citizen privacy, consumer devices, and ecommerce security.

The common perception around cybersecurity is that IT departments are solely responsible for it. As such, it’s commonly considered a technical and administrative issue that employees play little or no part in. Unfortunately, its this perception that’s leaving so many businesses exposed to cyberattacks.

All software comes with a predefined life cycle, at the end of which developers will no longer provide support for it. Despite being released nine years ago, Windows 7 still powers around a third of all computers used in the workplace. When mainstream support for the operating system ended in 2009, Microsoft offered extended support for business users — but only until January 2020, so there's not much time left to upgrade.

In November 2018, global hotel chain Marriott disclosed one of the biggest data breaches of all time where the records of half a billion customers were stolen. The misappropriated data included personally identifiable information, payment card details, and passport numbers.

With businesses spending between 1.5 and 7.2 percent of their yearly revenues on technology, leaders are always looking for ways to improve cost efficiency and ensure the success of their digital transformation initiatives. But, with limited budgets and technical expertise being in short supply, it’s often a difficult task.

As the proverb goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. Now that businesses have become so reliant on modern technology, more hangs in the balance than ever before. Solutions such as cloud storage and automation offer better opportunities to secure your most valuable business asset — digital data.

With the costs of running an in-house IT department easily running into seven-figure numbers even for smaller organizations, business leaders are constantly looking for ways to reduce the impact of technology on their bottom lines. When high-level executives like CIOs command a typical salary of over $142,600 per year, it’s easy to see why.

Every business, no matter its size or industry, faces constant pressure to innovate to keep up with an increasingly dynamic market. However, implementing new technology is always disruptive, and a lack of strategy can easily result in your business being in a worse situation than when it started.