Something that has always disturbed me is the number of cyber threats and attacks the United Kingdom receives daily. Now that our politicians are posturing on the world's stage in support of Ukraine, we can expect a lot more ...
From elections to referenda around the world, divisive adverts pop up, mainstream websites go down, and Twitter is aflame with tweets that outrage a portion of its users, but have very dodgy origins.
GCHQ and associated departments work hard to counteract some of the worst attacks on our country, but in a defensive role, they can't get everything. Important infrastructure like Government communications and nuclear power stations may be relatively safe, but your small company website won't be within their remit.
The UK military is developing 'offensive' cyber abilities, but is a little behind where the likes of Russia are. They'll catch up though, and just like the rest of our military, we can expect a small, but world-beating capability.
I was speaking to our blogger Steffi Lewis the other day and she was saying that her servers occasionally get attacked. She said she sees spikes in traffic on occasion and has blocked connections from the likes of Russia and is thinking of blocking other countries too.
When she checks her mail server logs, there are often attempts to guess email addresses and log in so they can send spam. Nothing sinister in her opinion, but it would be hugely annoying if someone managed to get in.
If you haven't thought about penetration testing of your business networks, you may want to find someone who can ethically try to hack you. This may sound extreme, but 'white hat' hackers are usually paid to do just that. They'll tell you how they got in, what they found, and how to fix it. All in a nice concise report so your IT team can action it. Doing it on a regular basis is a good way to keep your business networks safe from cyber threats.
One thing to note is that remote working during and after the pandemic has opened up a lot of doors to hackers. It really is worthwhile talking to a security expert and finding out whether you're waving a digital welcome flag to all and sundry.
Governments, critical infrastructure, technology companies, pharmaceutical companies and the press have all been targets of Russian hackers recently. You really don't want to be next because your business's reputation is going to take a hammering!
And if you do end up paying cryptocurrency to a hacker to get your business data back? Well, guess where the money is going to end up? Digital currencies are unregulated so are a great way to get around financial sanctions.
We all support Ukraine, but do yourself, your business and your customers a favour by talking to a security expert about cyber threars and ensuring you don't become a Russian hacker's next victim.
I know some good people who can help you.
If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.