Page 60 - Cyber Warnings

Why compromised credentials are one of the biggest threats

facing businesses today

By François Amigorena, CEO, IS Decisions

As a business, there are few things worse than realising you’ve become a victim of a serious
cyber attack. The consequences can be dear, and you may be left wondering how such an
attack could ever happen when you’ve done all you can to make sure your anti-virus software is
up to date, your firewall settings are all perfect, and everybody in your company is using the
latest browser version on a computer installed with the latest operating system updates.

The truth is these days, however, there’s only so much you can prevent by just using the
traditional security methods we’ve grown accustomed to.

But while hackers will always look for vulnerabilities in your system’s technology, the biggest
vulnerability you’ll ever have will always be your employees.

You could have the strongest and most secure technology in the world protecting you from
intrusion, but one sloppy accident from an employee could lead to disaster.

It only takes one employee to fall for a phishing scam and unwittingly hand over their domain
login details for a cyber attack to occur.

Once those login credentials are in the hands of an outsider to your company, that person has
the power to wreak havoc — all without you even noticing before it’s too late.

Are you sure that person on your network is who they say they are?

Compromised credentials are a huge threat. The reason why is that traditional security
technology like anti-virus software, firewalls and perimeter defences will not detect illegitimate
access by a hacker using a legitimate login.

And why would they? As far as they’re concerned, yet another employee is logging into the
system to do their job.

It’s the same with internal security. Once an attacker has gained entry to your systems, they
have all the time in the world to snoop around your files and folders, and steal whatever they
want — potentially sensitive information that could get you into serious trouble.

And in an age when regulation and compliance requirements around user security is tightening,
with larger fines and even the threat of imprisonment, the costs to your business can be
extremely hard to bear.

60 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine February 2017 Edition
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