Game over poster with a hand that holds the joystick. flat vector illustration.gettyPicture this: It's Saturday night, you've got your gaming headset on, PS controller in hand, and a bowl of chips strategically placed within reach. You're all set to unwind with some Call of Duty, and your friends are waiting in the party to jump in. But after a few frustrating failed attempts maybe even a full game reinstall (we've all been there, right?) a sinking reality sets in: the PlayStation servers are down. Worldwide.This isnt just a case of game night cancelled. This is a 24-hour disruption impacting a service many of us pay a monthly subscription for on top of game purchases, and it highlights some serious questions about data security concerns in our increasingly subscription-based world.Subscription Economy: Convenience or Potential Frustration?Take a quick peek at your bank app, you might be surprised by how many subscriptions you are paying for. From streaming services to software, the subscription model is everywhere. And companies are increasingly shifting toward it or offering subscription options to generate new revenue streams. But this shift comes with pressure, thanks to demanding consumers.PlayStations have been working on a subscription model for a long time. Users make monthly payments for online access, even for games they have already purchased. Sure, many titles offer offline play, but some require online check-in. And during this recent outage, millions were locked out of games they paid for, unable to access services they're paying good money for. The company announced that PS Plus users will get 5-day extension of their subscription.Want to learn more about how you can combine AI, data, and applications to make your business unstoppable in 2025 and beyond? Join us for thevirtual event on February 13, 2025.Outages can lead to disrupted sales, potential compensation payouts, and long-term damage to brand reputation. The market seems to be taking notice. 2% dip in Sony's stock after the outage news broke shows the financial vulnerability of companies heavily reliant on online services. In the subscription economy, where customer retention is key, maintaining trust is everything.Should we cut companies some slack, or demand when it is about the services, we pay but cannot reach or what about our personal data?Navigating the Cybersecurity RisksCompanies in the subscription business collect and store tons of customers data to personalize experiences, which makes them prime target for cyberattacks.Any outages turn out to be a data breach, the potential fallout for both consumers and big organizations is significant and far-reaching. For users, data breach means leaking personal data, including names, addresses, email addresses, birthdates, passwords, and possibly credit card details that could be leaked.For businesses, it is beyond the immediate hit to profits, reputation, and customer trust but class action lawsuits from individuals whose data was compromised. If the stolen information includes sensitive personal, legal, or medical details, the resulting legal fallout can be significant and potentially long-lasting.According to Sony, this was not a hack but an operational issue that lasted roughly a day, but it caused a serious panic in the PSN community and reminded the 2011 data breachich forced the company to deactivate its servers for 23 days. The financial impact of investigating the incident, enhancing security, and compensating users reached an estimated $171 million.How Can Businesses Protect Their Systems and Data?In cybersecurity, every year seems to be the worst year yet, with expectations of increasingly worsening conditions in the future. Since 2017, financial losses from attacks have quadrupled. Most attacks cause smaller losses (around $500,000), but big ones can be devastating. Once every 10 years, a company can lose up to $2.5 billion from a severe cyber-attack.When it is about enterprise cybersecurity, there is no one-size-fits-allsolution. To protect systems and data with cybersecurity, businesses should take a layered approach to create a unified defense strategy against potential cyberattacks, such as:Cyber Risk Assessment: There are tools that businesses use to analyse and assess the cybersecurit yrisk associated with various types of criticalAnomaly Detection: Using machine learning and AI, security systems can recognize the unusual patterns that deviate from whats considered normal. This enables them to take preventative measures to prepare their defences before the cyber attacks occur.Automated Incident Response: With security automation, organizations can automate responses to cyberattacks like malware or DDoS attacks. This helps them quickly contain threats and prevent them from spreading. By automating the detection and mitigation of these attacks, businesses can reduce downtime and minimize potential damage.Invest in AI-Specific Security: As AI-spesific technologies advances, so do the cybersecurity threats. Organizations should invest in AI to safeguard their systems effectively in order to keep up with the ever evolving cybersecurity landscape. Imagine a scenario where an employee clicks a malicious link in a phishing email, agentic AI can detect the mistake in real time and automatically block the user or send a warning. This all happens without human intervention, which is especially helpful during out-of-office hours. Imagine another scenario, if an attacker steals an employees digital identity and attempts to log in from an unusual location, showing activity patterns inconsistent with the employee's typical behavior. When the risk level exceeds a predefined threshold, agentic AI can automatically lock the account to prevent any potential damage.Train Your Team: Investing in cybersecurity is now a strategic business necessity, not just an IT requirement. While AI handles routine security tasks, enabling teams to tackle complex challenges, human expertise is crucial for strategic innovation. Security professionals require training to identify, prevent, and mitigate sophisticated, AI-driven threats by leveraging human intuition, creativity, and a deep understanding of evolving threats that AI alone cannot fully grasp.Want to learn more about how you can combine AI, data, and applications to make your business unstoppable in 2025 and beyond? Join us for thevirtual event on February 13, 2025.