Are you taking cyber attack seriously enough?
News broke this morning that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were the latest organisation to be attacked by hackers. The attack was rumoured to be the work of a state organised hacking group, and attempts were made to access emails and other sensitive documents.
The attack is the latest in a long line of digital security breaches affecting large organisations around the world over the past three months.
Sony have been attacked three times since April, the last of which led to user details from SonyPictures.com falling into the hands of hackers. They join the likes of Google, Lockheed Martin and Citygroup who have all had digital security breaches in recent months.
Online security is the biggest threat to business
Such news is perhaps not a surprise to managers around the world. In March UK managers revealed that the threat posed by hackers was the biggest risk they faced, with over 1/3 having suffered security leaks in the past 12 months.
So how can you ensure your organisation is as safe as possible? Most digital security breeches come from human errors rather than technical ones, so here are a few tips to help your company stay safe.
- Change the default password - All software and hardware will come with a default password, but there are lots of lists available online revealing the default passwords for all sorts of hardware, so make sure you change the password at the earliest opportunity.
- Regularly update your password - A McAfee survey found that nearly half of people never change their password. Regularly updating your password is an easy way to keep your systems safe. Force staff to update their passwords regularly.
- Educate users on good passwords - It's amazing how many people still use things like their pets name as their password. Create processes that force staff to use secure passwords.
- Monitor server access. Install a remote access mechanism that lets you shut down your systems remotely as soon as you find evidence of suspicious activity. This will stop any hacking activity in its tracks. Your network administrator should be able to install a real-time alert, such as a beeper alarm or an automatic e-mail message, to inform you of any unauthorized attempts to access your Web server.
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