Hacking Humans
Your best network defences and security can be undone with a simple click.
When anyone mentions hacking in conversation they typically conjure up images of the hooded figure in the shadows hacking away at a screen filled with complex code trying to penetrate firewalls and other such defences.
Let me pose a simple question, if you were planning to break into a building, would you scale the high walls, try to pick the locks, disable the alarms and evade the guard dog or would you look at the sleepy security guard on the front desk and try bluff your way past him?
It’s obvious when you put it like this, by far the easiest way into that building is coming up with some ruse to trick your way past the guard who isn’t paying very close attention anyway.
In order to protect yourself and your business you need to think like a hacker, most of the time the hacker is simply looking for the simplest and easiest route in, they don’t want to start attacking secure firewalls or other complex high risk systems, that is inefficient and time consuming. Hacking and more specifically ransomware is a business and like any business they are looking for simplicity, ease of delivery, trouble free routes to market and not to create additional work and risk for themselves.
Yes, it is certainly true that you should have excellent, well planned and managed security in place but so often it is the case that the one area of cyber security that is neglected is the people. Your staff can either be your weakest link or your strongest defenders.
So how do you upgrade your staff defences? There are 3 simple steps
- Education
- Education
- Education
Educating people on how attacks happen, what to look out for and how to respond is critical, not only will this lessen the chance that an attack will be successful but even if you are breached, your staff will report it quickly and efficiently. The first 24 hours after an attack is discovered are the most important, so the faster you find it the easier you can deal with it and minimise the damage.
The bonus takeaway here is that not only is education one of the most effective defences you can deploy but it is also the quickest, cheapest and simplest. Don’t become a statistic, invest in training your staff on cyber threats against your business.