5 Steps for creating a cyber security prevention plan

Cybercrime is risk to any business with an online presence. Cyber-attacks can have huge and sometimes detrimental implications for a business. A cyber- attack may even reduce trust in the company which can dramatically affect sales. As technological sophistication levels rise hackers are becoming equally as sophisticated. All companies should ensure they have a security prevention plan in place to try and avoid the damage cyber-attacks could do.

Here we discuss the 5 steps to improve cyber security in your business.

Global cyber-attack would cost businesses billions

A new report has produced findings in which it claims that a coordinated global cyber attack could cause economic damage of between £65-96 billion.

In the hypothetical scenario developed for Lloyds of London and Aon, findings showed that a malicious campaign similar to those of real-life ransomware (such as WannaCry and Not Petya) could spread around the world incredibly quickly and cause devastating damage in its wake.

The scenario involved an infected email which once opened forwards itself to all contacts. It estimated that within 24 hours, data on 30 million devices worldwide could be encrypted and business owners faced with the prospect of paying a ransom or losing their data.

The impact on those businesses through reduced operation, productivity, consumption, ransomware payments and disruption to the supply chain was estimated to be in the tens of billions with businesses most heavily impacted in Europe and North America.

Nearly half of all global login attempts are made by hackers

The content delivery network Akamai has claimed that 43% of all online login attempts are performed by cyber criminals attempting to compromise accounts of businesses and corporations.

A recent report from Akamai has revealed that almost half of all online log in attempts are “malicious”. In its report ‘Q4 2017 State of the Internet/Security report’ the company provided research that claims an overwhelming number of log in requests are “attempts to log in to an account using password guessing software or account details gathered from elsewhere on the internet. However, other sources such as The Register have suggested the real figure could be even higher.

How prepared are you for a massive data loss?

The ability of a business to recover quickly from an IT disaster cannot be underestimated. Getting back on your feet in a speedy manner can help avert financial loss, harm to reputation and other negative impacts. While we all hope that our own businesses will never be affected by disruptive incidents like cyber attacks, theft, fire or flooding, they can happen and failing to prepare is preparing to fail!

A good place to start when considering how prepared you are for a data loss is to look at some of the potential scenarios that could enable one, as while you may think you have plans in place you might not have covered every angle.

Will your employees be tricked by email scams and viruses?

Despite an ever increasing number of online attacks being reported in the media and harrowing new cyber threats like Ransomware being created, many companies are still failing to take effective action to improve their online security. As well as failing to keep their anti-virus software and firewalls up to date, they also fail to educate their workforce on the latest threats - a key part of securing their operations.

Phishing scams are one of the most common forms of fraud committed online today. They involve tricking an email recipient into handing over sensitive data and trusted information. A hacker may send an email which looks as if it has been sent by a supplier, a company that you work with on a regular basis, a service provider or even another employee in your own business. So they aren’t always obvious. They hacker may then try and encourage the recipient to download a piece of software, visit an unsafe website or supply them directly with sensitive information that they can exploit.