Monthly Archives: February 2015

Cyber Security: No Company is Too Small

By |February 25th, 2015|Categories: Security Assessment|Tags: , , , , , , |Comments Off on Cyber Security: No Company is Too Small

CYBER ATTACKS: NO COMPANY IS too small

Many companies think because they are small they are immune to a cyber attack—after all, they do not have the net worth of, say, Target ($38B) or Home Depot ($55B) or Walmart ($250B). This is a dangerous misconception. The fact is, whether you are worth millions or billions you are at risk, and your insignificant size might be the very thing putting you in jeopardy.

What makes a small business attractive to hackers? For one thing, smaller enterprises often don’t have the resources to implement the programs and training necessary to prevent, detect, and recover from attacks. Larger organizations do have the resources (including insurance) to weather a breach, but smaller ones may suffer irreparable damage. Another attractive difference is that while larger companies have a more holistic, integral view of IT security that extends across an enterprise, smaller companies tend to have a more myopic view where IT security is relegated to, well, IT. In addition, since smaller companies often have less sophisticated firewalls and detection programs, they may be targeted as a portal for later use as conduits to larger organizations. For example, preliminary investigations indicate that the mess at Target may have been initiated by an employee of their HVAC vendor who opened a malware-laden email. It has been said that you are only as strong as your weakest link, and all too often, that link is human.

Whether you recognize it or not, your organization’s systems and data are exposed in countless ways, including via mobile apps, third party vendors, remote employees, former employees, cloud storage, weak passwords, neglected legacy systems, and social media. In its September 30th report, Managing Cyber Risks in an Interconnected World:
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Hackers Aren’t Waiting. Why Are You?

By |February 11th, 2015|Categories: security|Tags: , , , |Comments Off on Hackers Aren’t Waiting. Why Are You?

Hackers Aren’t Waiting. Why Are You?

Why is Cyber/Computer Security so far down on your to-do list? If your reasons are any of the following, you might want to reconsider your priorities.

Let’s address each of these points in turn.

They can’t find you.  On a recent episode of 60 Minutes, Dave DeWalt, CEO of cyber security company FireEye, asserted that 97% of all companies are being breached. Ninety-Seven percent. So, unless you truly live off the grid, you have likely had a breach already. The real question is how bad is the damage?

They can’t find your valuables.  These criminals are very sophisticated and have the knowledge, tools and patience to find your sensitive data and exploit it.  Hacking has evolved from the lone geek making mischief to an actual profession and, as Lance Cottrell, Chief Scientist at Ntrepid and expert on security and privacy writes, “In most breaches, it turns out the hacker has been inside the network for months.”

Your valuables aren’t worth it.  Wrong again. They aren’t always interested in your data; often they are interested in your financial partner, investor, supplier and customer. Anything sensitive they can sell or make profit from.

You have other priorities.  You will always have other priorities. But believe me, if the hackers come—and they will—you will have to deal with the fallout and that will become your new priority.  With several methodologies at hackers’ disposal such as viruses, malware, botnets and ransomware, cleaning up the damage will be more involved than you think.

You don’t know where to start. Improving your security begins with having a prioritized list of actions based on risks to your company.  A risk assessment will accomplish that and, at the same time, help you raise
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