COVID-19, International lockdown, and the home working revolution taking place around the world will lead to discussions about the need to go back to a large office building again. Many people see no return to normal working until well into 2022. How many of us will decide as a result of this we're not interested in returning to work in a regular office building every day of the week is employers to sort. It's clear that it is not just part-time workers, new mums, people approaching retirement, but almost everybody is considering whether or not they want to go back to work on a full-time basis.
Many say; Productivity is at a low, innovation is stifled everywhere owing to COVID19 and lockdown. It's no wonder that ransomware, hacking, phishing, and general IT and cyber threats are running riot the world over with so many staff, people ill-prepared to deal with it.
In recent weeks, Air India, the Irish health system, US gas pipelines, numerous Government departments across Latin America have been ransacked by cyber thugs. Dozens of other organisations have been hit too (many of whom have paid via bitcoin) but yet to report it. GDPR requires they report it. Most won't bother preferring that their competitors, customers, suppliers or worst of all investors don't find out.
IT and Finance departments worldwide have been stretched to the limit trying to protect their organisation's communications, infrastructure. Simple things like password hacking, password swapping among staff. Common sense will tell us that the email inbox is the most important thing to protect in any environment, especially in lockdown. It is the simplest thing for a criminal to hit, and they know it is only a matter of time before somebody falls prey to tiredness, forgetfulness or just not caring. The best endpoint protection in the world will not prevent human error or plain malice.
Our Internet safety talks for business, large corporations and government and NGOs offer people a refreshing reminder in a different yet clear authoritative voice of the most important issues in IT protection. Since the start of lockdown we have spoken to dozens of large businesses, universities, military providing lighthearted well thought out clear cyber-safety talks. We get right to the point with practical examples of errors that people have made over the last few years.
Common sense and restraint are the main aspects discussed in these talks. For example, the financial controller accidentally transferred £44,000 in a CEO mail fraud attack. She would usually have gone through the procedure of setting up a new supplier, authorising and double-checking the payment with her CEO. In this case, the email was so convincing by the criminals, she decided not to contact her boss who was playing golf with a new client whilst she was clearing her desk for holidays. Her resultant depression following her mistake was of much greater concern to her boss than the loss of £44,000.
Boss In Ireland fined €94,000 by the WRC for harassing an employee online and in-person for connecting to her machine and downloading personal pictures from her laptop while she went to the bathroom. He said he needed to charge his phone
French-based CEO who accidentally clicked a link threatening to reveal his gambling losses using company funds, a bogus assertion which just happened to be correct led to a crime gang taking control of the company Servers. He lost his reputation, job and career. Vital company IP was sold to competitors in Israel causing the company irrevocable damage. His bad luck was running into criminals who knew what they were doing.
That's what we do in our Internet safety and online safety talks for organisations. We run through common-sense things we need to be doing every day to make sure that we don't make the simplest mistakes.
Reminding people of good password practices, discussing the need to be careful around new emails, reminding people we must never click links, download files attached to emails from people we don't know. People are always amazed to find out you can buy online crime as a service for as little as $20.00 an hour on the darknet and all you have to do is feed in hundreds of emails that you can buy or steal from anywhere. Most individuals or organisations are hit by petty criminals just eking out a living, not some high functioning international crime gang.
Bitcoin ransoms, generally, people say not to pay, Lawyers almost always pay. We've seen some nasty cases, it is never easy for people. We will run through the most common scenarios, from a one-man Instagram shop right up to a Goverment Department. People are always surprised how emotional and raw it is dealing with a bitcoin ransom attack, we'll discuss. Book now
We deliver short 40 minutes online zoom or Microsoft Teams talks developed in conjunction with you the customer hitting on and emphasise exactly the points you need to remind your colleagues and staff to remember. Our speakers and talks teams can work with you to roll out cyber safety programs and IT initiatives.
All that remains is for you to get in touch and work with our first class speaking team. We look forward to hearing from you.
It is good to talk, not sure what to do next, we are here to help. Click to Book now.
The Dangers of Ransomware
How Phishing works
We are just not that bothered
GDPR Review
Your Business is at risk
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