In years past, if you wanted to keep documents or records secure, you put them in a safe or a vault. Those techniques made perfect sense when all our documents or records were physical. However, today, an increasing number of vital documents and records are digital. While digital documents have made our lives easier in many ways, they also pose many security dangers we may not realize until it is too late.

Consider these shocking statistics. There were 42,887 incidents of data loss, theft, computer intrusion or breached privacy in the United States alone, in 2011. Three quarters of organizations surveyed reported that their reputation was damaged due to cybersecurity breaches. These cyber attacks can affect a company’s records, business and reputation.

The United States government is spending $13 billion to protect its information technology. Clearly they are taking the threat seriously. Unfortunately, many organizations are not. According to one survey, the majority of organizations admitted they do not fully realize the implications that a security breach could have for them.

Fortunately, there is something these organizations can do. Today, there are a number of cyber security companies that offer the next gen network security businesses need to protect their digital assets. Common next gen network security solutions include wireless intrusion detection systems, real time network monitoring, and enterprise firewalls. These solutions are one of the reasons that the organizational cost of a security breach and the cost per lost/stolen record are declining. Consider that an investment in a next gen network security system can end up paying for itself when one factors in the potential cost a network breach could have on an organization. Whatever course of action an organization decides to pursue, they should take cyber security threats seriously. See this reference for more: www.sourcefire.com