Monday, January 26, 2015

Will businesses grasp network security before it's too late?

2015 just started and already there has been three major breaches reported:
This is not included all the other news that continues to be published:

IT Security continues to be a big focus, and the bad guys are not just targeting big businesses anymore.  Smaller companies are easier targets and good practice for the big hack's, like Target or Home Depot in 2014.

At this point the authorities and the criminals are playing a cat and mouse game.  And the bad guys (cyber terrorists) continue to disrupt our lives, stealing our information and using it to disrupt our daily lives.  Isn't that what terrorists do???

In my experience opinion this is something that we will be dealing with for many years to come.   To combat any of this in my opinion, should come down from the Government (new laws), industry regulators (stricter compliance) or just being "smart and pro-active".  Many vertical markets have compliance they have to follow but network security is a very small piece of it.  There has to be more of a focus on compliance on securing the network for every business in America and beyond. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg to hire a network security consultant to review firewall logs, network security policies and overall vulnerabilities in your network.  This will give you an idea where your weak-nests are and how to plan on remediation when something happens.

It’s just a matter of time before we all have to deal with some form of a breach.  The key is to follow best practices, detect and respond.  The security breach notification laws say you have to notify individuals of security breaches of information involving personally identifiable information.   The penalties vary per state.  In Florida, $1,000 per day up to 30 days following any violation and $50,000 per 30 day period thereafter up to a maximum total of $500,000.
  
We can always help you plan, prevent and response: shine@slpowers.com

Stay safe out there, it's pretty nasty....

Sean