INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
With public opinion of Facebook continuing to flux, we took the opportunity to poll businesses at the IP Expo earlier this month on the
state of their cyber defences in the wake of this latest high profile attack.When we last spoke to the tech industry, at Cloud Expo earlier
Facebook was understandably shaken, with more than 50% stating that they trusted the social media juggernaut less following its involvement
This is all having a positive impact on individual security awareness, however, with 28% claiming to have amended their security settings
that information on at least 30 million accounts was stolen (versus the originally reported 50 million), and that the attackers had total
access to a trove of personal information including usernames, email addresses and phone numbers.For over 14 million of the accounts,
however, the hackers also acquired information on relationship statuses, work and education history, religious beliefs, current city,
gender, device type, recent check ins and much more
With information on workplaces included in the stolen information, it would be foolish to argue that many organisations will now find
that businesses were likely to become phishing targets, with just 20% of respondents believing it could instead alert businesses to predict
we polled believed they had both the technology and education needed to combat any potential phishing scams
38%, meanwhile, were confident they had the technology in place but not the user education, while on the flip side 22% believed they were
Encouragingly, only 7% had reason to panic, with neither the technology or education in place to protect them.The ripple effectSo what does
their security and sharing settings should do so immediately, particularly if, like many of us, they have other apps linked to their account
defending against potential attacks
Those regularly implementing simulation and training programs will see improved security awareness among their users, utilising simulations
to empower individuals with the baseline knowledge and confidence to identify subtle phishing attempts.Of course human resilience can only
Technology in the form of effective perimeter filtering, bespoke network architecture and other tools to identify malware within the network
are also vital for a robust security strategy
Businesses would also be wise not to become complacent, ensuring they remain up to date with the latest software and security updates and
cyber-attacks, any one of us could be next
Every breach, every news story and every attack proves that we need to become the gatekeepers of our most valued data.Asaf Cidon, VP of
