Understanding Why Your Business Needs Cybersecurity

Why Businesses Needs CybersecurityBy Scott S. Smith
Security Practice Lead

The recent data breach at Equifax is just one of the latest in a long string of high-profile cybersecurity failures. In this particular case, the Social Security numbers and other sensitive information of up to 143 million Americans were exposed. In another case, the NotPetya attack very quickly spread to, then severely hobbled operations in, corporations around the world, including the giant shipping company Maersk.

These and other recent cybersecurity failures in the news have resulted in intellectual property loss, disclosure of embarrassing communications, loss of business, massive public relations nightmares, and more. And that’s just for the high-profile cases!

Read more: Understanding Why Your Business Needs Cybersecurity

Can Your Business Survive a One-Two Punch?

BCP for multiple problems at onceBy Stephen McGrady
Principal

If Hurricane Harvey and the magnitude 8.1 earthquake off the coast of Mexico didn’t get you thinking about whether your business is prepared to withstand a major disaster, chances are Hurricane Irma or Maria did.

Like most professionals who work in the Business Continuity Planning (BCP) field, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the implications of having three major natural disasters strike in North America within a 1-1/2 week span. It’s become clear to me that even if you have what you thought was a solid plan in place to keep your business operating after a disaster, your plan might not be good enough. After all, most organizations put plans in place that address how they’ll recover from one disaster. Very few ever consider the possibility that the situation may be even worse than that.

Read more: Can Your Business Survive a One-Two Punch?

What’s New & Frightening In the World of Ransomware & Business Continuity Planning

Ransomware & Business Continuity PlanningBy Stephen McGrady
Principal

Those responsible for Business Continuity Planning (BCP)—i.e. having plans in place to keep a business running after disaster strikes—understand that the world really can be a dangerous place. Although hacking, malware and ransomware aren’t really “new” threats per se, they have certainly grown in frequency and impact.

As some recent high-profile situations have shown, terrible things can and do happen to organizations everywhere. Case in point: Disney was recently hit with a ransom demand by hackers who claimed to have stolen the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. A few weeks before that, hackers stole the latest season of “Orange is the New Black” from Netflix, and leaked episodes when the firm refused to meet their ransom demands. And then there’s the widely-publicized “WannaCry” ransomware attack, which affected over 200,000 computers in 150 countries in May.

Read more: What’s New & Frightening In the World of Ransomware & Business Continuity Planning

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