business focus 19
Chartered accountants Haines Watts presents a series of articles based on its blogs. It offers analysis, reviews and comments and welcomes your feedback at
www.hwca.com/opinion
of the month
Cyber security – hands up or the fridge gets it writes Barry Potter, partner at Haines Watts
How long have we dreamt about robots and household appliances which can actually communicate with each other? With the development of the Internet of Things, this has finally become a reality.
The term the 'Internet of Things' or IoT was first coined at a conference back in 1999 to describe the connectivity of physical objects with devices and smart objects. Now British companies are major players in the development of this sector, which is largely down to our track record in communications technology and cyber security. The UK Government demonstrated their commitment by allocating £40 million towards further research in the 2015 Budget.
All good news, but security and privacy is still a big issue. The inherent problem lies in the fact that security is seldom the first priority for a technology company when trying to beat the competition to market.
But the Internet, as we know, is fundamentally insecure and we have to rely on firewalls and virus protection on our network to safeguard us. The major worry is how safe our personal information actually is. We need to be mindful of precisely what data we share with third parties when we register and connect our appliances – and then we need to protect our networks.
There are a few, simple, preventive measures that you can take to
protect yourself and your business:
• Maintain strict control of what software is installed on your computer system.
• Check that your software has the latest security ‘patches’ and that your anti-virus software is kept up to date.
• Ensure that your network is protected by a firewall.
• Encrypt sensitive data.
• Make sure that your system can only be accessed by way of individual passwords, which should be changed quarterly as a
minimum.
• Manage and monitor the way that your employees use their own mobile devices, applications and cloud-based storage at work.
• Have an emergency response plan in case of a security breach or virus.
For further information regarding this or other financial matters visit the website.
Details:
www.hwca.com
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THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – FEBRUARY 2016
www.businessmag.co.uk
JIB200.10.15
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