Thank you to everybody who joined us at the Cyber Security event. Over 40 North Shore businesses were in attendance. The objective was to highlight the ever growing cyber crime threat. Our expert panel was made up of representatives from the world’s leading providers of cyber security: Fortinet, Storagecraft and Sophos.
What was clear from the presentations was that exploits are on the increase and that small businesses are viable targets. Our panel was overwhelmed with questions from attendees and we were delighted to have been invited to provide further on-site cyber security training for attendees’ members of staff.
Below is an excerpt from the Mi-IT introduction to Cyber Security Event:
Pictured here is the Lockheed Martin F35 – the world’s most expensive and at times the world’s most secretive defence program to date. Lockheed Martin, the manufacturers, had an undetected data breach which lasted for two years. The result of the two year data breach is the Chinese J31 – a replica of the Lockheed Martin. Read the story here of how the data breach occurred.
Cyber crime affects every government, business, organisation and individual. No company is too small to be targeted.
Cyber criminals would rather target 500 small companies and extort $2,000.00 each rather than one large company for the princely sum of $1 million. I’m afraid to say you are the preferred target!
The frightening reality is there’s simply no such thing as fool proof security. Today’s cyber threats are so agile and advanced, that breaches are inevitable and remediation planning is essential. Today, it is about managing your risks.
Test your staff
One in three security breaches in small businesses start with human error; this shows that workers aren’t getting the training they need. Why not test your staff, ask us to send a Phishing email and see how many of your people respond.
Linkedin had 164 million email addresses and passwords stolen and is only one of many breaches from an international company. Therefore, if you were one of the unlucky subscribers who had their passwords stolen and you do not have a unique password for each site you have a login for, then you are at considerable risk.
Here is a tip about password security
Strong passwords without consideration for the end-user is meaningless, especially if they have to be written down. Create your password and append it to part of the web site you are visiting to create an unique password for every site.. For example: Your preferred password might be: NoEntry423. Amend this password for each website you log into by appending it to the first 3 letters of the website: facNoEntry423 (Facebook); linNoEntry423 (LinkedIn)etc.
Finally, assess the risks in your business and find your allies to help manage the identified risks. You don’t have to fight the bad guys alone; a three-stranded cord is not easily broken. Bring together people, processes and technology as your strong three-stranded defence against cyber crime. The team at Mi-IT can help you with perimeter defence with a physical firewall, end point defence with antivirus software, and a recovery solution with backup software.
Most importantly our end user support provides human interaction, monitoring and maintenance giving you peace of mind. We make this easy!