Cyber security is not a problem for the IT team, it isn’t a problem for your employees who come in, do their job and head home, and it isn’t a problem for management either. It’s a problem for you.
All too often we hear the same words, ‘Cyber security is the responsibility of my IT team’. Unfortunately, that view is hugely outdated, and you need to take a look at the bigger picture to ensure you have everything covered, and we really mean everything.
Whilst we have no doubt your IT team does an exceptional job in keeping your computer systems safe and secure, there are still plenty of ways you could get caught out. The Risk Dashboard aims to highlight potential areas of weakness to allow you to act before it’s too late, or indeed, have a plan in place should the worst happen. But what exactly do you, as a business owner, need to be aware of? We’ve created just a couple of scenarios that highlight the potential risk cyber security poses to your business.
Financial risk with cyber security
Financial risk and cyber security go hand in hand. Imagine your accountant receives an email from you asking for a quick bank transfer into your account. The email address, email signature and even your style of writing has been expertly copied. Your accountant is busy, it’s a Friday afternoon after all, and although it’s a little unusual for you to ask with such short notice, it’s hardly worth questioning. The money is transferred. If it was suspicious it would have been picked up by the email spam filter, right? Wrong. This is a situation happening up and down the country, it’s clever, it’s terrifying, and you need to ensure all staff are aware of the potential pitfalls.
If in doubt, pick up the phone, or ask your accountant to pick up the phone to confirm each payment with you, especially if it’s a little out of the blue.
Employee risk and downloading malware
Whether you have a team of 2, 20 or 200 or 2,000 people, the potential threat of malware being downloaded onto your computer systems is high. What if an employee gets sent an email with a simple attachment from a colleague? It looks innocent enough – oh yes, it’s those minutes from the meeting last week! They are downloaded, but the file seems a little off… it didn’t open properly. Ah well, not to worry… And so it begins…
The attachment now has control over the computer. It can wait until it’s turned off to scan through files, or it can even record every single letter typed on the keyboard from now on. All of those passwords… all of those pin numbers. This can continue for many months, and you may be met encrypted data asking for a ransom to release it. Or perhaps, confidential information could be sold, and you would be liable. The consequences aren’t worth thinking about.
Is it the fault of the staff for opening the attachment, the fault of management for not explaining the risks, or your fault for not educating the entire company on the potential risk and having a risk management plan in place should cyber security precautions fail?
For more information on how the Risk Dashboard can strengthen your cyber security efforts, please don’t hesitate to get in touch contact Neil Campbell, Commercial Director on neil.campbell@riskdashboard.co.uk or info@riskdashboard.co.uk!
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