The Importance of Data Protection

One of the core principles for our existence as cybersecurity professionals is to protect the data and information within our organization. For the most part, threat actors are looking for financial gains. This is typically done through gaining access to data and information that can be used as extortion against an organization to pay the threat actors or to sell that information on the dark web.

For example, Privacy Affairs has a Dark Web Price Index 2023, which provides an idea of what the average price is that data is selling for on the dark web during a specific timeframe. Obviously, these prices can fluctuate over time: https://www.privacyaffairs.com/dark-web-price-index-2023/.

Here is a sample of data from the link above with some of the credit card products available with an average purchase price.

Figure 15.8: Privacy Affairs credit card data from the Dark Web Pricing Index 2023

Imagine your organization manages and stores...