If it hasn’t happened to you personally, it’s happened to someone you know. Your computer has been hacked. I know it’s too scary to think about but it happens literally every second of the day. Someone, somewhere has had their personal information on their computer system has been compromised. They have been violated: passwords, financial information, and confidential data that they thought was safe is now in the hands of criminals.
Has my computer been infected by a virus?
Picture this, it’s late at night and you’re working on an important project and suddenly start noticing pop-ups repeatedly on your computer screen. Your files are taking too long to load. There is a good chance that your computer has been infected by a virus. In recent years there have been many examples of malicious viruses that have costed companies and individuals millions of dollars:
• Cryptolocker, was released in September 2013 in email attachments; encrypting the user’s files so that they couldn’t access them with a a decryption key in return for a sum of money
• Slammer, after only a few minutes after infecting its first victim, it doubled itself every few seconds and had infected half of the servers that essentially ran the internet within minutes.
• Anonymous viruses from the Ukraine that affected thousands of computers, disrupting ports around the world and halted production at a factory in Australia.
While these viruses might be some of the most common forms of online security threats, there are many others that are just as deadly including:
• Botnets
• Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)
• Hacking
• Malware
• Pharming
• Phishing
• Ransomware
• Spam
• Spoofing
• Spyware
• Trojan Horses
• Wi-Fi Eavesdropping
• Worms
The reality is that many more cybersecurity threats are being created each day. While completely eliminating threats is next to impossible, protecting against them without disrupting day to day business operations is a top management concern. As a company delivers more of its products and services online, it has to adapt to the increasing threats and rise to the challenge as these threats will only increase not only to remain competitive but to protect its clients data.
What are the consequences and potential impacts of cyber security attacks and how can the risks be mitigated? Does their risk plan account for all of the potential incomes assigning probabilities of occurrence and plans of action? Do they have the necessary resources in-house to deal with cybersecurity threats in-house or do they require external resources?
While there isn’t an obvious solution, companies must come to terms with their risk exposure to cybersecurity threats and create solutions that encompass strategy, operations, risk management, and legal and technology functions. Dennis Waitley once said “expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised” We hope that you will be pleasantly surprised.
Summary
Has the data and confidential data on your computer system been compromised and what can you do to minimize the damage?
#cybersecurity #computerviruses #malware