Page 27 - Cyber Warnings

How To Combat Security Cracks Created By Collaboration

By Ram Vaidyanathan, ManageEngine

The number of cyberattacks will grow as employees increasingly use collaboration tools
to maximize their company’s productivity

Cybercrime costs the global economy as much as $450 billion each year. And, the median cost
of cybercrime has increased by nearly 200% in the last five years.

Meanwhile, collaboration has become the cornerstone of successful organizations. But
collaboration often comes with a risk.

The number of cyberattacks will grow as employees increasingly use collaboration tools to
maximize their company’s productivity.

This is because these tools can provide new points of entry for hackers looking to cause
damage. This issue could become more serious as we will see more radical collaboration tools
in the days to come.

Fortunately, there are always going to be readily available solutions. Here are three ways in
which an organization’s security can be compromised due to increased collaboration:

A wolf in sheep’s clothing: Companies collaborate with suppliers, vendors and customers in
the cloud every day. Consider this scenario: A supply chain executive receives an
automated weekly email with an MS Excel file from their logistics partner, giving the
estimated time of arrival for products. A cybercriminal somehow discovers this
practice. The criminal then impersonates the logistics partner by using a similar email
address.

The executive doesn’t notice and downloads the attachment — an executable (.exe)
file masked as an MS Excel file. When the executive opens the file, a wolf in sheep’s
clothing enters the company’s network to steal trade secrets, financial data, and
customer information. This modus operandi, called spear phishing, is popular globally.
By some estimates, 91% of all attacks begin with spear phishing.

A betrayal: With the advent of bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration has become fairly
common. Employees can now access work files while away from the office and
increase their productivity. On the other hand, disgruntled employees can easily
expose information or even sabotage company files.

What if an employee who is about to join a competitor were to print customer contact
details from a remote location? And what if this employee took this information to the
new workplace? This betrayal could lead to the company losing its competitive edge.

27 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – August 2016 Edition
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