Political Campaign Cyber-Hacks: One Key Lesson for Business
Respected cyber security analyst Lenny Zeltser recently analysed the cyber attacks against 2016 and 2018 election campaigns in the United States(a). His analysis is thorough and not too deeply technical – definitely worth 10 minutes to look it over.
But, if your cyber security is on a tight budget, one message shone out.
Every single protective counter-measure on Lenny’s list is free.
Free. Think about that. If you knew you could defend yourself for free you would, wouldn’t you?
Actually, we at InsurTechnix know that good intentions don’t always follow through to good actions. Common sense is not always common practice. The first barrier is visibility: most organisations have no central way of knowing which devices have which issues.
Try the following test: Take just three items from Lenny’s list…
- Use the latest OS version for your systems and devices.
- Install security updates for your apps and the OS as soon as they come out.
- Uninstall the apps you don’t regularly use.
…and ask ourselves:
- How confident are you that your organization knows how many devices it actually has?
- Do you know which version of which OS each device is running? Do you know what versions they should be running?
- How would you find out which apps people use regularly, including any they may have installed without your knowledge?
You see, once you know where the issues are, defending yourself is easy. But organisations that can’t answer those questions quickly become easy prey for hackers.
InsurTechnix’s CyberSentinel is a simple management information tool for auditing and reporting on all aspects of cyber-hygiene. To learn more reach out to hello@insurtechnix.com