This article is part of Panther’s new Future of Cyber Attacks Series which features interviews with cyber security experts, thought leaders, and practitioners with a goal of better understanding what organizations can do to prepare themselves for the future of cyber attacks.
The following is an interview we recently had with Chris Connor, Managing Director of Glo.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen a serious rise in cyber attacks especially as more people are working from home, changing their setup to accommodate this and security is facing many more risks. While we, the tech industry, are fighting fires, putting in protection barriers at every step, and adding in extra layers of backup and storage, it’s a little like a game of whack-a-mole when faced with the number of attacks. And it’s only set to grow. They’re getting smarter, slicker and more evasive and without a suitable punishment in place to deter criminals, this is going to continue to exist and evolve.
It feels like every other week we are seeing a new cyber attack in the news, thousands of people and businesses are being targeted. Honestly, if you are being specifically targeted by a cybercriminal, the chances are you will be hacked. There are important and preventive steps you can put in place to make their job harder and put yourselves in a less vulnerable position. From the perspective of the criminal, why knock down a door when you can walk through an open door elsewhere?
The future could look scary as technology progresses and common knowledge of how to master it advances too. The threat of cyberattacks should not be underestimated and businesses and organisations should give time and investment to protecting their assets. Cyberattacks in the future could take the shape of wiping out key businesses that employ large numbers of a population to take down countries in political cyber warfare. On a smaller scale, cyberattacks can increasingly take over business systems and lock them out at a ransom, lift customer confidential details and share them publicly to impact a business’ reputation. The risk and consequences of such crimes can be far-reaching and devastating and the sooner organisations are wise to this and react accordingly, the better.
Three tips for organizations looking to best prepare their cyber security are firstly to introduce multi-factor authentication on all associated devices and systems. A cost-effective and simple step to add into your employees routine but a brilliant barrier to deter potential attackers. Secondly, use a password storing system such as 1password to limit leaking of details and adding yet another wall of defence against hackers. There are many options out there to choose from and it saves time day to day, as well as protecting your business. Last not least, run our updates. If your system is due an update, take the time to run it. It’s easy enough to leave it running overnight so that your computer is ready for you to start work in the morning. Don’t let this fall down your to-do list. In every update are crucial fixes to bugs, increased protection and useful features that will make your system work better and safer.
