NEWS


IBS Journal October 2017


15


Hackers are hitting SMEs hard, but negligent employees are to blame


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egligent employees are the root cause of data breaches. That’s what 54% of IT professionals think, according to a study by Keeper Security and the Ponemon Institute. The


study, titled the 2017 State of SMB Cybersecurity Report, looked at the state of cyber security for SMEs across North America and the UK.


This study replicates the findings of similar studies, which prove that insiders are to blame for the majority of these attacks.


Although according to the study, passwords and biometrics are the main defences, 59% say they do not track the safety and usage of their employees’ passwords, with only 43% of respondents having a password policy in place. Unfortunately, 68% do not enforce their policy.


Out of business


“As both frequency and size of data breaches increases, SMBs must face the reality that a material adverse financial impact on their business is a real possibility,” said Dr Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. “Attacks are becoming more costly, with the average cost due to damage or theft of IT assets and infrastructure now exceeding $1,000,000. The average cost due to disruption to normal operations also increased to over $1,000,000, compared to the 2016 report. One cyber incident could very well put a small company out of business.”


Over half (51% of respondents) experienced an attempted ransomware attack, 53% of them had more than one in the same period. The study states that 79% pinpointed the origin of the attack to a phishing/social engineering attack.


“Critical data is more accessible via mobile devices. In fact, more than 50% of US companies’ sensitive data can be accessed via an employee’s smartphone or tablet” said Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder of Keeper Security. “Poor password policies, the rise of mobile-targeted attacks and the influx of Internet of Things devices in the workplace is a recipe for disaster.”


SWIFT India welcomes Citibank and Standard Chartered as shareholders


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itibank and Standard Chartered have joined SWIFT India as shareholders, teaming up with the nine Indian banks that founded the venture alongside SWIFT in 2012.


Shareholders of SWIFT India represent their own institutions as well as the interests of the broader Indian financial community, which includes domestic banks, market infrastructures and their customers.


The other member shareholders in the initiative are Axis Bank Ltd, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, SWIFT SCRL and Union Bank of India.


“Citi has had a long-standing global association with SWIFT, which now extends to this strategic partnership in SWIFT India,” said Debopama Sen, South Asia head of treasury and trade solutions at Citibank.


“Our focus at Citi is to support the growth of the digital ecosystem that is taking shape in India with our global experience. This association will help enable efficiencies in managing Corporate-to- Bank digital flows in India on a secure and robust platform.”


Sanjay Gurjar, managing director and head of transaction banking in India at Standard Chartered Bank, added: “At Standard Chartered, we continue to promote digitisation and innovation for our clients.”


SMEs are becoming more of a target for cyber criminals, and there has been an increase (from 55% to 61%) of companies experiencing breaches since 2016, with a near double increase in the quantity of stolen data (from 5,079 records last year to 9,350).


Entry points


The impact that Internet of Things devices may have in the office worries 67% of these professionals, with over half (56%) deeming it the most vulnerable endpoint.


Criminals manage to infiltrate systems via phishing/social engineering (48%) and web-based (43%). Respondents reported a higher number of a phishing/social engineering attacks, which coincides with the number of ransomware attacks their companies experienced.


www.ibsintelligence.com


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