Tim Smith illustrates the growing urgency for businesses to develop a plan in the event of cyber attacks
Cyber security is seldom far from the headlines these days. Whether it is celebrities such as Taylor Swift finding that personal (and often intimate) photographs suddenly appear in the public domain or the news last month that President Obama’s emails have been hacked by Russians, these incidents are not only embarrassing but serve to highlight the ease at which media and communication platforms, even at a government level, are readily accessible to hackers.
Serious consequences
Such attacks can have very serious consequences, not just for the individuals involved but also for the businesses that are targeted. Earlier this year a high street retailer signed an undertaking with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), to make a number of substantial changes to its data protection policies, after the exposure of millions of customers’ personal data following a hacking incident. A database, due to be decommissioned, was left unencrypted which allowed a hacker to potentially gain access to customers’ website passwords and contact details.
