OysterCare, a multi-discipline IT consultancy service providing
network security.
rise in cyber attacks that are costing companies billions of pounds
each week, according to Michael Breach, managing director of Oyster
Bay.
Only 35 percent of small to medium-sized enterprises have a
comprehensive disaster recovery programme in place.
Half of all companies that lose their data go out of business
overnight and some 90 percent are reported to not survive more than
two years.
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Breach said that hardening a company’s systems can be expensive,
but leaving them open to attack is, sooner or later, going to be
more expensive – as well as potentially catastrophic to a
business.
“If you have an internal IT team some measure of protection can
be gained,” Breach said. “But be mindful that fraud is often
perpetrated by people inside the circle.
“It is wiser to employ an external agency to give an independent
view of your vulnerabilities.”
He added: “If you have never encountered a disgruntled employee,
or you simply can’t understand why anyone would want to target your
installation, then you need to know that many attacks on internet
and network systems are not aimed at specific organisations.
“A mass broadcast can use unprotected systems as staging posts
to reach other vulnerable systems, making it more difficult to
detect the originating criminal, while at the same time
exponentially increasing his chances of successfully hitting a soft
target.”
Breach advocates a business continuity plan should be drawn up
to ensure companies are prepared for a worst-case scenario.
“The plan,” he said, “should be short and readable but must be
rigorous.”
