It’s like an affliction, even if the person has it, most of the time he would like to believe that he is not afflicted. Wishing it away does not sort out matters, it confounds and then it becomes a curse. Nothing then can bring you back to the old healthy condition. In the case of Cyber Security, you might not be impacted, but you have been seeing the world around you. It is something like being in the midst of an epidemic and *falsely believing that it would not impact you. Neither are there any logical reasons to believe it nor are you taking measures to safeguard yourself.
This makes the situation even more precarious. Getting hacked in the new normal, has become a truism of late. Ransomware has been ruling the roost for quite some time. Nonetheless, the response to this imminent threat is generally very feeble. You feel that it does not deserve the investment it needs, as visibly there is no ROI. If you keep talking of ROI then decimation can turn out to be the only next logical step, however outrageous it might sound on the face of it. A latest article title from BBC reads “IT warning after hackers close 160-year-old firm.”
Marks & Spencers and the Co-op had experienced serious disruptions recently after being targeted by hackers. A cyber-security expert in Bedfordshire warned it could happen to anyone. Knights of Old felt they were in a very good place in terms of their security, protocols and in the measures taken to protect the business. Finality in areas unknown and existential are fraught with immense risks. As luck will have it, a ransom note from a hacker group was found buried in the IT systems at Knights of Old. “Despite efforts to maintain operations manually, the attack damaged key data, making it impossible to meet reporting deadlines set by the lenders.”
The company founded in 1865 and employing 730 people by 2023 was forced into administration. One thing is loud and clear, it can happen to anyone. The larger companies have some of those processes, procedures, and trained staff in place. They also have enough money to get experts in to fix the incident as it’s going on. What does it turn out to be for the smaller companies? It’s more of an existential issue. They don’t have the kind of finances that M&S have to get the experts in. The rise of “ransomware-as-a-service” models that combine data thefts with data encryption, can really be debilitating. It thus increases pressure manifold on the victims to pay ransoms.
ALL COMPANIES (SMALLER MORE) NEED TO HAVE A SERIOUS SECOND LOOK AT THEIR CYBER SECURITY SYSTEMS, ELSE DECIMATION REMAINS A POSSIBILITY.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.