Every Little Helps! – Cyber criminals laughing all the way to the Bank
So yet again, through a successful cyber attack, a bank loses money from thousands of their customers’ accounts. Is it enough that the Tesco Bank CEO says that customers will be reimbursed? Maybe so, maybe not. It betrays a certain arrogance to imagine that an apology about inconvenience and an assurance about returning stolen founds – is sufficient to put right the wrong that has been done! Customers have every right to expect better levels of cyber security and resilience from financial institutions. It is our trust in the entire online banking proposition that is the major victim of yet another major breach. Banks have a duty to implement all practical cyber security measures to ensure the safety and security of data they hold – even those that have strayed outside their chosen sector of grocery provision.
Tesco Bank hasn’t yet said what caused the breach, but this isn’t the only question that they need to answer:
- How long have their systems been under attack?
- When was the breach first discovered?
- What security measures had they failed to take which enabled the attack to be successful?
- Have they implemented the Government’s Cyber Essentials Plus standard?
Too many times we see large business enterprises fall victim to cyber attack – when they ought to be capable of deploying effective counter measures.
But it’s not just large private sector corporations that fail time and again to implement sound, basic cyber security measures. Last week, Lincoln County Hospital had to cancel operations due to a cyber attack on their systems. Scary enough, but not entirely unexpected – as the healthcare sector is notoriously poor at implementing even the most basic security protocols.
So what’s the message for SMEs?
Securing UK plc is going to be a mammoth task – millions of small and medium sized businesses carry on day-in and day-out, without taking the most simple cyber security steps to protect their business operations. Why?
- Because they think it can’t happen to them
- Because they haven’t heard about the Government’s Cyber Essentials Scheme – designed with SMEs in mind
- Because the Government’s message has been aimed almost entirely at businesses in the Government’s supply chains.
We need to ensure that every business in the country understands that implementing the UK’s Cyber Essentials (CE) Standard will help mitigate up to 80% of common online cyber threats. The basic cyber security steps towards CE Certification can be taken with ease and at low cost (from £300 per annum) by signing up to www.thecyberhighway.com. That’s how much it costs to take fundamental precautions that will help ensure that your business survives and flourishes. Here at The Cyber Highway, we understand that every business leader’s aim is to provide a great future for your company, its employees and for your customers too. That’s why we have made compliance with the Government’s Cyber Essentials standard as simple and straight forward as possible. No hidden costs and all the help you need, securely and instantly available online, to help you achieve CE or CE+ certification. In the months and years ahead, having a CE Certificate will be a major differentiator for your business and an imperative if you want access to good rates of cyber liability insurance.
Join The Cyber Highway – to a secure Cyber Essentials future for your business
Last week, we looked at what information you needed to define the Scope of your network, devices and other connected systems that you plan to put through the CE process.
This week, we take a look at The Cyber Highway journey starting with the Dashboard overview of where you are on the route to Cyber Essentials success
Key features of the dashboard provide your company with an oversight of:
- Details of your devices and networks entered into the system, using the Cyber Highway Scope Builder
- The Message Centre which records the messages generated by you and the system – viewed securely in one place
- The date on which your CE Certificate expires (it’s an annual certification)
- Our radar picture of where you are on your journey towards CE Certification
- Your Journey Tracker – which provides you and colleagues with a quick view of the progress that your business is making on the road to CE certification (you can issue log-in credentials to colleagues to enable them to answer statements and upload evidence of compliance)
- The Toolbox is your company’s storage area into which you upload any files that relate to your CE compliance statements
- The Service History is a summary of any requests for support that you have made to the team at The Cyber Highway
- The Dashboard Assistant get’s you connected instantly to the support team at The Cyber Highway
- The MOT centre gives you an instant overview of the statements you have been able to answer satisfactorily (Green = Maintain), those that are work-in-progress (Amber = Optimize) and those that need immediate attention because you haven’t yet started work on them (Red = Transform)
Enjoy our short video on You Tube here
and then come and join us on The Cyber Highway for a safer cyber future for your business.
Coming up next week: we tackle the first in a series of compliance statements that will help you through to achieving Cyber Essentials compliance and certification. If you can’t wait for that, get on The Cyber Highway and Just do IT!
