You might not need fancy IT security tools,
but do you have the basics against this $400 billion problem?
The scary reality of today’s business environment is that the cost of cyber crimes will continue to rise – MacAfee estimated the global cost of cyber crimes at $400 billion on an annual basis. CNBC dubs this as the $400 billion problem.
How does this affect SMEs?
SMEs are often guilty of optimism bias – they believe that such attacks will not occur at their own backyard. Terms like “cyber security” or “data security” tend to come across as somewhat intimidating and costly. Often, because of the size of their company, they believe that such costly precautions are only applicable to bigger organisations.
Their IT infrastructure runs the risk of being neglected or overlooked.
We’re not saying you need fancy IT security tools.
We are saying, however, that considering the rising threat and sophistication of cyber crimes, you would need at least a strong infrastructure to provide a basic level of IT security.
The recent Bangladesh Bank cyber-heist has amplified this learning point that cost the bank $81m. The cyber-heist, touted as one of the biggest bank heists thus far, has caused other financial institutions to make a mad scramble to ensure their infrastructures are intact as they are utilising the same global payment network, SWIFT.
While investigations are still ongoing with both organisations shifting the blame, SWIFT’s stand remains firm: organisations are responsible for the security of their own local IT environment. Current investigations revealed major lapses in Bangladesh Bank’s IT environment, e.g. missing firewall on their networks and hardware shortcomings.
Sure, as a financial institution, there should have been stricter IT precautions in place. However, it was also important to note that the basics were lacking in the first place – flags were raised because of spelling errors made by the perpetrators. Not security warnings, but spelling errors.
Being complacent in IT can cost you dearly.
Sadly, these lapses in IT infrastructure are common within SMEs. Such lapses might have been harmless a couple of decades ago but the business environment has changed and evolved to make these same lapses unforgivable today.
We do understand that IT might not be the main focus in a small company. However, in today’s highly advanced technological environment, IT represents the basic foundation that not only empowers you with tools to carry out your day-to-day work easily and efficiently, but it provides you with the necessary security to be able to do that with a peace of mind.
Servers, network and workstations should be properly secured so that data remains safe and protected. Backups have to be updated and a disaster recovery plan should be in place to ensure business continuity.
Cyber crimes are becoming a real threat. Figuring out the first step might be confusing and scary. Talk to our consultants. Let us help.
