Cyber-crime and your company

They enter our lives through the unseeing and complicated cyber space. They hang around in our office, wade between our employees and rummage through our company information and data. And then, they come in for the kill…Cyber thugs and thieves make a living stealing and holding hostage our cyber assets, online access and even our devices.

Let’s face the facts, cyber-attacks have become one of the greatest threats businesses and individuals can face in this day and age. The South African Banking Risk Information Centre recently released itsdigital banking crime statistics report, which confirmed that the number of mobile banking incidents have more than doubled compared to the same period last year, with gross losses of R23,593,631.

Around the world, hackers are increasingly targeting businesses and governments.According to Symantec, 43 percent of cyber-attacks against businesses worldwide are targeting small companies.

It is evident that the nature of cyber threats are constantly evolving. Hackers are honing their skills and targeting us where it hurts most - our reputation. We cannot afford to be complacent; we have to be proactive.

Here are a few tipson how you can prevent or deter these veiled villains from gaining access to your company’s online sources:

• Optimise your email security by layering the security levels and making it difficult and time-consuming for hackers to access.
• Adopt password polices, such as two-factor or multi-factor authentication.
• Ensure you have state-of-the-art protection software in place, such as your firewall, malware, antivirus, and email spam and phishing protection software.
• Investigate and ascertain where your IT network and data centres are vulnerable and make the necessary adjustments.
• Encrypt your data by implementing the use of full-disk encryption tools.
• Secure your hardware in the event a computer, or other business device, is stolen.
• Embrace security as part of your company culture.
• Educate your employees regularly, and allow your IT specialist to share his/her latest findings and implementations.

Internationally, businesses and enterprises are veryaware of the need for data protection, and they implement security procedures to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, we continue to hear how cyber criminals continue to crack the code. Which brings us to another question, are you covered from liability arising in the unfortunate event of a cyber-attack?

Contact us today to discuss your Business Cyber Risk Liability and to ensure you are thoroughly covered for any related event or incident. We are here to help.