PROMOTIONALFEATURE
Attacking the hackers
Urban IT solutions can help make your franchise more secure against cybercrime
I
n a franchise business, maintaining a safe IT system can be tricky. Your operation is a potential target for hackers. If that isn’t enough to be worrying about, data protection laws are getting tighter with hefty penalties for breaches. Sadly, hackers are interested in your systems. Data can change hands for huge sums and information is power. Even if you do not lose valuable data, a crippled IT system could cost you a fortune and could effectively shut down your business, stop you trading, and lose you customers. The statistics are frightening: 33 per cent of small businesses and 65 per cent of large businesses reported a cyber breach or attack in the past 12 months.* Franchise operations are more at risk because of their structure. That’s easy to demonstrate by looking at the divide and conquer model familiar from centuries of politics, military conflicts and sport. Breaking through a defence is easier if it is fragmented or if opinion differs amongst the opposing force. We all recognise the football team whose confused defensive strategy makes them an easy target for the attacking forwards of the rival team.
As on the football pitch, individual franchisees may share the aim of preventing the attackers getting through but approach the challenge differently. Some may invest more in their cyber security than others, but a robust defence on one side isn’t effective if the cyber criminals can damage the whole brand’s reputation by sneaking through on the opposite wing. Multiple software platforms, different versions, licence end dates, different policies and protocols are all things that can make IT systems vulnerable. When software is incompatible, someone builds a workaround. One franchise operation may tightly control user access to a common system, while another is lax, jeopardising the security of the whole.
A USB flash drive with customer data or an unsecured network can wreak havoc. Your defences will only ever be as strong as your weakest link. The customer could be seeing a coherent whole, but it’s only a façade if it’s underpinned by a fragmented IT strategy. All a franchisee’s motivation, investment and effort could be for nothing. If you’re beginning to despair, don’t. You can build a solid defence with some surprisingly simple steps. The UK government has introduced a certification scheme called Cyber Essentials, which is aimed at protecting small and medium-sized organisations including franchise operations. Every business should: • Form a cyber-risk management regime • Educate staff • Control removable media • Standardise home and mobile working • Manage user access • Build a secure configuration • Use business malware protection • Secure its networks.
Implementing all the steps needn’t be expensive and could even help to win more business. The standard has been mandatory for some government contracts since 2014 and is demanded by more and more organisations. Having the Cyber Essentials certification allows you to demonstrate to your customers, investors, insurers and others that you’ve
reduced your risk of falling victim to cybercrime and, critically, that you’re keeping data secure. Protecting your data is critical for business reasons, but it’s also essential if you’re to comply with the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Effective from May 2018, these are rules with teeth in the form of hefty fines, and proving that you’re following them will be an absolute must for any organisation. Here again, having a consistent strategy across a franchise operation makes sense. The methods used in cyber-crime are always evolving and the potential for data to be abused increases all the time. Therefore, defences and data protection policies must be kept up to date. A diverse approach plays into the hands of the hackers, leaving your systems and data vulnerable, but neither cyber security or GDPR compliance needs to be a huge challenge. Choose a planned step-by-step approach, the right support, and remember there is strength in consistency. n
Urban IT Solutions
info@urbanitsolutions.co.uk www.urbanitsolutions.co.uk
Franchisor News | 37
*
www.cyberaware.gov.uk
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