Improving business resilience with managed cyber security
Facing adversity is part and parcel of running a business. We see a threat, learn and understand what it is, respond appropriately and develop our processes; ready not to be caught out a second time. Just like our everyday lives, when threatened we evolve what we do – it’s why we wear seatbelts when driving and now wear facemasks in indoor public spaces.
However, the cyber threat landscape is developing exponentially in sophistication. The pandemic has opened up numerous opportunities for criminals to exploit so we must be quick to learn and adapt to protect ourselves and our businesses.
Years ago, you might have had an email from a ‘Nigerian Prince’. Most of us have; you (hopefully) didn’t send him money, deleted the email and moved on. It was such a preposterous scenario it almost became a bit of a joke – we felt safe and it wasn’t anything to worry over.
Today those bogus emails look much more realistic, perhaps pretending to be from HMRC – asking you to input your details for information about furlough, or to claim a tax refund. They’re personalised emails to your CEO based on who he follows on Twitter, or spoofed attachments from ‘trusted friends’. They’re Excel spreadsheets with an enticing name that contain a malicious macro, and that when opened deploy ransomware onto your network. They’re definitely no joke, and we’re not laughing about them. The impacts on our business are real, and the stakes are higher than ever they once were.
Just as with this pandemic, we’ve deployed tactics that have worked before and that we know will provide some protection, but we’re also still learning and adapting. Just as it is for healthcare, so it is for phishing emails – a memo going out to staff to keep an eye out for the emails and checking that our anti-malware software is running helps delay or stop the progress of many cyber-attacks; but we now know much more and have additional options available to us that help us fight against those with malicious intent.
Having access to the right skills, knowledge and technology to navigate the cyber-crime pandemic can make all the difference between being front page news or just a footnote. Waterstons’ managed cyber security will help you make security part of your everyday business activities, enabling you not only to survive but to develop into a stronger organization – with all the tools you need to win the cyber fight.
To learn more about how Waterstons help protect customers from attacks like these, visit: www.waterstons.com/security