Holiday season is peak period for cyber attacks

With the holiday season in full swing – now is the most important time for organisations to assess their data security.
Respected security analysts Kapersky Lab have conducted extensive research on the rate of financial phishing and other cyber crime during the holiday season.
It found the incidence of cyber crime was up to nine per cent higher during this period, compared to other times of the year.
Pre and post Christmas, New Year and other holiday periods are prime times for cyber crime – when criminals carry out phishing attacks and circulate financial malware and other viruses.
Many businesses are also even more vulnerable because it is their busiest period, and resources are stretched.
So, protecting your databases and networks from break-ins and corruption should be a top priority.
At Core IT Solutions, we can efficiently appraise your company on the safest and most effective ways of increasing your data security – as well as securing your valuable information via encryption and other tools.
According to a Verizon Data Breach Investigations report, an estimated 285 million records were compromised in the US in 2008 – with 74 per cent of those attacks from outside sources.
Therefore, careful strategic planning is essential when securing your data – along with the implementation of key security measures.
Protecting your hardware is very important, especially laptops which, due to their portability – can also pose a greater risk of theft.
To combat this, Core IT recommends encryption on all of your hardware to ensure sensitive data is protected.
This also includes company mobile phones, which are now almost as important and essential to your business as laptops or desktop computers.
Maintaining strong passwords for all equipment is essential – as is changing passwords frequently.
Secure firewalls are necessary to protect your office data – as is installing effective antivirus protection.
It is also important to carry out regular program updates and backups – including scheduling regular backups to the Cloud – which is the simplest and most effective way to ensure safe storage of your data.
As a general rule, Core IT also recommends servers be backed up at least once a week – along with regular daily backups.
This also goes for personal computers, which should be backed up weekly – and the internal network should be closely monitored for data leakage.
The use of data-leakage prevention software on the network means a breach of security can be detected early and with minimal disruption – and Core IT can advise companies on this area.
The ongoing education of all employees is very important to ensure viruses do not compromise your network.
We have found it quite common for unsuspecting employees to unknowingly download harmful links or attachments via e-mail or the Internet.
Clickable links are some of the worst offenders when it comes to compromising a company’s security.
Therefore Core IT recommends clients never click on an unknown or suspect link and constantly educate their staff – to maintain the best protection possible over the holiday season.
Lastly, as a special holiday offer, Core IT is offering all potential new clients a free network audit (valued at $497) using an industry-leading IT assessment tool.
The audit compares multiple data points to uncover hard to detect issues – and measures the risk to your business based on impact to the network.
It also suggests recommended fixes and tracks remediation progress, where needed.
For more details on how to protect your data or for a free network audit please contact Kerrie Lugton at Core IT Solutions on 1800 00 10 40.