Are we threatened by cyber attacks?

Cybersecurity, hackers, threats and vulnerabilities have been talked about more and more recently. The entry into force of the provisions of the GDPR caused the first wave of increased interest in the issues of risk analysis, vulnerability identification and risk minimization. Almost a year has passed since then, and security still seems to be one of the most popular issues in the IT industry. At the end of last year, another wave of interest aroused the so-called "Cyber Act", i.e. the Act on the National Cybersecurity System. Although it does not arouse such emotions as the GDPR, because it covers only providers of critical services from the point of view of the state, it is one of the hottest topics in the sectors of the economy related to energy, transport or health protection. It is also worth recalling that since 2015, the public finance sector is still covered by the regulation on the National Interoperability Framework, in which a fairly large fragment has also been devoted to security issues.

All the above-mentioned regulations refer to the need to implement information security management systems, the task of which is to identify vulnerabilities and threats, analyze the risks associated with them and implement action plans aimed at minimizing this risk to an acceptable level.

Is the threat of attacks by cyber criminals or cyber terrorists really that serious? Unfortunately, everything indicates that it is. Already some time ago, NATO recognized cyberspace as one of the areas of combat operations that it must defend be prepared. As a result, at the beginning of February this year. the decision to establish a Cyberspace Defense Forces in Poland was announced. Therefore, it may soon turn out that state institutions and the cyber army will be slightly better prepared to defend the digital space.

What about the private sector? We have a "D Recommendation", which imposes certain security standards on financial institutions, and we have the aforementioned GDPR, which, however, is quite flexible in this respect. Everything else depends on good will and is most often assessed through the economic prism. In business, security expenses must pay off. This is where the trap appears, because the costs of implementing security are compared with the costs of possible losses. However, these losses cannot be correctly calculated if the company does not carry out an effective risk analysis and vulnerability identification process, which is an element of the information security management system. Therefore, entrepreneurs often incorrectly assess the probability of the occurrence of threats that may disrupt the continuity of business processes. This results in incidents, as a result of which companies suffer huge losses, often not only in financial terms, but also in terms of the image. Not a single week goes by without a major incident related to the activities of cybercriminals or cyber terrorists. The latter became active, for example, on the occasion of the last Middle East conference, which took place in mid-February in Warsaw. Iranian hackers, dissatisfied with her organization, launched a massive attack on around 90 government portals. By the way, many news portals and private companies had somehow backfired. Brutal attacks on passwords to CMS systems and website swaps have disrupted the work of many companies. On the other hand, cybercriminals have been very popular recently when they break into the popular online store Morele.net. The intruders stole databases containing customer data and transaction history from it, blackmailed the owners of the store, and eventually sold the stolen data to other criminals. The result was a wave of frauds and scams directed against the customers of the store.

Therefore, it is definitely worth thinking in advance about the safety of your environment. The costs of removing the negative effects of an attack are much higher than the costs of preventive actions. Security has become a very broad issue, which is no longer limited to the implementation of anti-viruses and firewalls. Hazard identification, risk analysis and security audits should become part of a continuous process aimed at maintaining the safety of the infrastructure at a satisfactory level.

If you would like us to help you in the process of identifying threats, see our unique offer workshops combined with a security auditthat we can carry out in your company.