Businesses are being advised not to wait for cyber hacking to happen to them before they take action, but to start taking precautionary measures.
This tip has come from Mark White, chief technology officer at Deloitte, who noted that cyber hacking was taking place around the world and Barbados was not immune.
His comments came during Deloitte’s Tech Trends 2013 seminar at the Savannah Hotel under the theme: Elements Of Post-digital.
The former real estate software provider told the room of chief financial officers and information technology practitioners: “There is no such thing as hacker proof”.
“It is happening. We got worried about it and build all these high castle walls and the bad guy still got in and the good stuff still got out . . . .”
He noted that many companies had started a “defence” by implementing a buzzer and password system but those alone were just not sufficient.
“So, what shall we do? Well, there are three parts to this. Part one is that we have to finish that defence in depth, not just cyber security – detect, prevent, repair. Secondly, we need to begin to use smoke detectors not just wait until we see the fires burning. We need to anticipate.
“So add the cyber forensic, modelling and the analysis and the cyber analytics; the prediction.
“And the third thing is we need to be able to intervene and aggressively [attack] it. That is the hard part.”
The international IT specialist added: “If you believe the Trinidadian network is compromised, cut it off. If you think that this business unit is compromised, disconnect it. If you believe that this device is compromised, disallow it”.
He said many businesses were guilty of not saying if their systems were compromised because it could be damaging to their brand and by extension the detriment of their business.
“The good news is that we are getting better at this [but] the bad guys are getting smarter every day, and their tool sets are phenomenal. . . . You don’t even have to be a hacker expert to hack. The underground economy of this thing is alarming,” he lamented.
Roger Hennis, manager consulting at Deloitte told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY banks and Government entities remained the most desirable for hackers due to financial and other personal information.
“Any industry where people are keeping information on clients, that is one that we need to be very concerned [about] in terms of hackers. Hackers specifically target Governments and banks because the information is useful. From a bank’s point of view, I get your credit card information [and] I have access to money. From a Government’s point of view, I get your information [and] I can do identity theft,” Hennis said. (MM)
