I.T. hardware; essential for security and productivity

Governments and authorities in Australia are escalating their focus on cyber-security, including introducing more guidance, advice and mandatory reportable incidents.

If your organisation is covered by the Privacy Act 1988, then the NDB (Notifiable Data Breach) scheme applies. In simple terms, any suspected or known cyber attack must be notified to affected individuals and the OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commission).

The real aim though is to mitigate the risk of cyber attack and remember, apart from the likes of phishing and ransomeware; the other common attack is the simple theft of a customer database, which among other things contains names and passwords - this might seem harmless enough, but in the hands of the seasoned cyber criminals, that info gives them a shot at hacking your and your customer's accounts.

In our recent blog, we talked about the Essential Eight cyber security mitigation strategy; this is a strategy that ALL businesses should have in place. 

One of the most understated essentials for cyber security is having up-to-date hardware (laptops, desktops, servers etc). I.T. hardware becomes more vulnerable the older it gets and cyber crime is essentially random - the perpetrators are looking for the easiest targets. They use software over the web that, among other things, identifies the type and age of hardware and if it's over a couple of years old, they know all the vulnerabilities. A bit like a car thief and an older model car. 

Click here to view Loyal I.T.'s fact sheet flyer about the importance of having up-to-date hardware.

If you have any questions or concerns about the age or vulnerability of your I.T. hardware, please contact Kaylene or myself by emailor call us on (02) 4337 0700.

To wrap it up, here's some facts and figures to re-emphasise the ever present threat; a small to medium sized business is just as attractive to cyber criminals as a large 'big prize' corporation. Just like a corner store or service station is just as vulnerable or attractive to criminals as is a big bank.

Some revelations from the survey How Australian Small Businesses Understand Cyber Security:

• $29 billion lost by small businesses every year
• Nearly 50 per cent of SMB's under-spend on IT security annually
• One in five small businesses use outdated equipment and operating systems
• Low implementation rate of an effective mitigation strategies

The latest NDB report indicates that 64% of reported breaches were Malicious or Criminal Attacks. Malicious or criminal attacks is broken down to:

• Phishing - 24%
• Compromised or stolen credentials - 22%
• Theft of paperwork or data storage device - 12%
• Rogue employee/insider - 12%
• Social engineering/impersonation - 9%
• Malware - 7%
• Ransomware - 4%
• Brute force attack - 4%
• Hacking - 4%
• Other - 2%

The same report highlighted the top 5 industries being attacked the most-

• Health service providers
• Finance
• Legal, accounting and management services
• Education
• Personal services

Loyal I.T. has extensive experience in supplying, setting up, installing and maintaining business I.T. hardware (as well as software, systems and managed services).