Companies in the subscription business collect and store tons of customer data in order to personalize experiences. This makes them an attractive goal for cyber attacks.

Imagine it: It is Saturday evening, you put your gaming headset, placed the controller for your PlayStation in your hand and a bowl of chips in strategic reach. You are ready to switch off at a round of Call of Duty, and your friends are waiting to plunge into battle with them. But after a few frustrated failed attempts-perhaps even a complete reinstallation of the game (who doesn’t know it?)-you get to the terrifying knowledge: The PlayStation servers have failed. Worldwide.

And it’s not just an evening when the game round has to be. It is a 24-hour disorder of a service, for which many of us pay monthly subscription fees in addition to buying games. The failure also raises serious questions about data security in our increasingly subscription -based world.

Subscription -based business models: a comfortable solution or source of the frustration?

If you take a look at your bank statement, you may be surprised at how many subscriptions you pay fees every month. From streaming services to software-subscriptions are omnipresent. And more and more companies are switching to subscription models or are offering subscription options to open up new sources of income. However, this change is associated with high expectations on the part of the consumer.

Playstations have long been offered as a subscription model. For a monthly fee, users receive online access, including games they have already acquired. Of course, many titles can also be played offline, but some online registration is required. Therefore, millions of users recently not registered with the games they had paid for and had no access to the fee -based services. PlayStation Plus users offered Sony five days of compensation after the disorder was fixed.

Failures can result in sales difficulties, possible compensation payments and long -term damage to the brand. The financial markets have also noticed the PSN failure. The Sony share had to be known after the failure became known 2 percent loss accept. This shows the financial vulnerability of companies that are highly dependent on functioning online services. In the case of subscription -based business models, customer loyalty is crucial – and everything depends on the fact that customers do not lose confidence in the provider.

Should we be out of the question or should we reclaim our money if payment services are not available? And what about our personal data?

Control cyber security risks

Companies in the subscription business collect and store tons of customer data in order to personalize experiences. This makes them an attractive goal for cyber attacks.

If it turns out that there was a data breakdown in the event of a failure, this can have essential and far -reaching consequences for both consumers and large companies. For the users, a data breakdown means that personal data such as name, address, email address, date of birth, password and possibly credit card information could reach the public.

For companies, a data breakdown not only has direct negative effects on profit, reputation and customer confidence, but also have to fear collective complaints from the users whose data has been compromised. If the stolen information contains confidential personal, legal or health data, this can have significant and long -term legal consequences.

According to Sony, the failure was not a hacker attack, but “company problems”, which lasted about a day. However, the PSN community reacted with panic, which was reminiscent of the data breakdown in 2011 when the company had to take its server out for 23 days. The financial effects of the investigation of the incident, the improvement of the security measures and the compensation of the users were estimated $ 171 million.

How can companies protect their systems and data?

In the cyber security industry, you quickly get the impression that “the worst thing so far” is every year. It is assumed that the dangers will continue to increase significantly in the future. Since 2017, the financial losses have been quadrupled as a result of cyber attacks. Most attacks have relatively low losses (Around $ 500,000As a result, large -scale attacks can be devastating for companies. Every ten years, a company can lose up to $ 2.5 billion due to a serious cyber attack.

What the Cyber security from companies If there is no solution that is equally suitable for everyone. In order to protect systems and data from cyber attacks, companies should pursue a multi -stage approach and develop a uniform cyber security strategy with the following elements:

• Evaluation of cyber risks: Tools are available with which companies can analyze and evaluate the cyber security risks for different types of critical infrastructure. On the basis of this information, they can prioritize their security measures and provide resources to remedy security gaps.
• Detection of anomalies: With the help of machine learning and AI, security systems can recognize unusual patterns that differ from normal behavior. So companies are able to Preventive measures to take and secure yourself before there is a cyber attack.
• Automated reaction to incidents: With automated safety functions, companies can automatically react to cyber attacks such as malware or DDOS attacks. This can contain threats quickly and avoid spreading. By automating the detection and defense against these attacks, companies can reduce downtimes and minimize potential damage.
• Investment in AI-specific security functions: Not only AI-specific technologies Develop, but also cyber security threats. Companies should invest in AI to effectively protect their systems and keep pace with the constantly new cyber security risks. Suppose an employee clicks on a harmful link in a phishing email: An agent-based AI would be able to recognize this error in real time. The user can then be blocked automatically or warned with a notification. All of this happens without human intervention, which is particularly helpful outside of business hours. In another scenario, an attacker steals the digital identity of an employee and tries to register from an unusual location. A AI can recognize activity patterns that do not correspond to the typical behavior of the employee. If the risk level exceeds a predefined limit, the agent -based AI can automatically block the account to prevent potential damage.
• Training of your team: Investments in cyber security is no longer just an IT request for companies, but a strategic necessity. While the AI takes care of security-related routine tasks, so that teams can deal with complex challenges, the human know-how for strategic innovations remains crucial. Security experts must be trained so that they are able to recognize complex AI-based threats, to ward off and contain them. In doing so, they can fall back on human intuition, creativity and a profound understanding of new threats that AI alone cannot fully grasp.

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