Understanding Cyber-Security: Shackleton's Thoughts

Perhaps the most important part of your defensive strategy is understanding the ways in which your business is vulnerable and, by extension, what kind of cyber-threats you face. In January, we examined some of the weaknesses your company may be harbouring:

• Encryption: In the event of a network breach, unencrypted data will be instantly available to hackers.
• Back-up: Your back-up strategy won’t necessarily deter attacks, but if you don’t have one, the potential damage they cause will be increased
• Updates: Out of date software is a red-rag to hackers, who will be deliberately searching for and targeting well-known security weaknesses
• Devices: You may be happy with your network’s security, but what about the weaknesses in your employees’ personal devices? Secure your BYOD plan.
• Training: Your defensive plan is only as good as your employees’ ability to put it into practice. Phishing and malware scams rely on naivety and ignorance – do your staff have the training to spot and identify sophisticated cyber-threats?

Once you understand how your network could be targeted, it’s worth exploring how hackers might create a breach. You face a range of evolving threats, but ‘types’ of attack do emerge – to help you spot them, we outlined their characteristics:

• Malware: A catch-all term including viruses, Trojans, spyware and any software with malicious intent for your network. Malware can manifest as attachments or downloads, often concealing its threat to trick users into clicking.
• Phishing: Masquerading as a trusted source (typically an email), phishing scams attempt to lure users into handing over sensitive information which can be used to breach their network. Phishing scams may be incredibly sophisticated in their execution – but there are ways to spot the danger.
• Password hacking: One of the oldest tricks in the book, weak, obvious or old passwords can be guessed by the enterprising hacker with very little effort.
• DDOS attacks: Sophisticated and dangerous, distributed-denial-of-service attacks overwhelm a website with traffic, and often act as a smokescreen for hackers to execute a secondary, more dangerous attack while your network is vulnerable.