Nick Hayne at Quiss offers up some valuable cybersecurity tips for 2020
When Travelex decided to take its currency exchange services offline after discovering its systems had been compromised by an ‘REvil’ ransomware attack on 31 December, cybercrime again became headline news.
More disturbing perhaps than the $6m (£4.6m) ransom, is the cybercriminals’ claim to have downloaded sensitive customer data, after accessing the Travelex network six months ago, apparently without anyone noticing.
It’s highly likely the hackers will have gained access to Travelex by targeting some of the more than 7000 people who work across the organisation globally, with a range of attack methods, including phishing.
This is why we make no apology for focusing again on cybersecurity. You will have mapped your digital transformation strategy, but unless everyone in your firm lives and breathes cybersecurity, you could face a crippling attack you never recover from, financially or on reputation.
What are some security tips for 2020? Let’s start with passwords. Never reuse passwords. Create unique ones every time for every application. Criminals now use automated bots to brute force attack systems using passwords revealed from past data breaches.
If you reuse passwords, there’s a risk that the compromised password will be used to test other systems – a great reason to use password managers to ensure unique passwords for every system. And never reuse the password you use to log onto your firm’s network.
Any good password manager will work, but only if you and everyone in the firm uses one. Remember, you and your colleagues have to protect your futures, every minute of every day – the criminals only need to be lucky once and it could be game over.
This article was first published in LPM’s February issue ‘Connecting Clients’, click here to read the full article.
