Another day, another cyber scare story – today it’s the NHS.
Barely a day goes by now without another confession from a major business or institution of being attacked by cyber-criminals. Organisations of all sizes are being targeted and while the ‘big boys’ make the headlines the threat to SMEs is just as great, if not greater.
But perhaps, and this might be a bit contentious, people might take the matter a little more seriously if we dropped the cyber element and just called these people criminals?
By adding the ‘cyber’ suffix are we just turning this into a vague, ill-defined problem? We don’t see any criminals and the damage isn’t always admitted so perhaps it’s not really ‘real crime’?
It is a real crime, it’s a crime that can affect every one of us and we have a responsibility to do all that we can to prevent this criminal activity…imagine having your client files accessed, your bank account drained or your reputation damaged beyond repair…once the consequences are personal, it’s real and obvious criminality.
TalkTalk have just been hit with a £400,000 fine for their 2015 data breach – but they were the victims, surely? That can’t be right?
TalkTalk weren’t the victims. The victims were the people who trusted TalkTalk to do a reasonable job of protecting their data as customers. TalkTalk were fined by the ICO for not taking basic steps to protect customers’ information.
We are hosting a free Cyber Security event in November in association with Surrey Chambers and the Reigate and Redhill Business Forum, to book your place simply contact Carol Squires at Surrey Chambers on 01483 735540 or email carol.squires@surrey-chambers.co.uk
