When Hackers Strike
“The battle against terrorism is not only a military battle, but primarily a battle of information”
-Ahmed Chalabi
In today’s globalized and cyber-connected world, hackers are a real and present danger. The threat of “bad guys” extends to the Internet and the security of your life and personal information.
Throughout history, all new technology created for advancement and progression have, at some point, been used by bad people for even worse things. Internet hackers are the terrorists of the cyber world — looking to gain power, steal from, exploit and put fear into the minds of people who use it. Hackers look to take advantage of those who are naive enough to put secure information into an unsecured system lacking strength to protect the information and to believe it will not get stolen.
Whether they’re classified as a white hat, black hat, blue hat, hacktivist, or elite hacker, they all function under a multitude of motivating factors. These could include profit, enjoyment, protest, or even for good, but you will not and may not ever know WHY someone stole you’re information until it is too late and your money or identity is gone — or something important has been compromised.
On an entirely larger scale there are the elite hackers and organized crime gangs looking to exploit corporations and larger business for the purpose of taking them down, defacing their name, helping competitors, or wiping them clean for millions or even billions of dollars.
Now you ask, “Well, how can I do my best to prevent this from happening to me?” There is no one definite answer that will prevent hacking. But, we can suggest some tips for organizations:
1) Either staff full-time IT security experts or keep security management professionals on retainer. If you go with a managed security firm, make sure their processes align their job with your security policies and goals. Your managed services company should offer state of the art tools, round the clock monitoring, and high responsiveness. If crisis strikes, they’ll be there with you, not out to lunch.
2) Make sure your risk management policies address high privilege accounts. This is a must for any organization because hackers target employee Privileged Accounts. As per above, a good managed security team will help you.
3) Monitor your network with a multi-layered approach. There is no one tool or monitoring at a single layer in the network. Leveraging multiple tools and multiple points in the network is key, and your managed security services professionals will know just how to help you.
4) Keep on top of fixes and patches. Have the ability to create emergency maintenance windows for severe threats.
5) Consider putting your organization’s most sensitive data in a high security private cloud (as opposed to leaving it in a public cloud). Security must be architected and there are an amazing array of tools designed to keep the bad guys out of your private cloud.
6) Plan for and implement next gen technologies to respond to evolving security threats. Keep on top of new technologies to protect against the ever evolving universe of threats.
The AISN team can offer help with all of these aspects of security management, particularly secure and compliant hosting. At AISN, our clients choose our High Security Private Cloud because it offers the highest levels of security but also compliance, scalability, enhanced performance, availability and responsiveness. The private cloud allows clients to leverage virtualization technology securely without placing their sites, apps and data in a less secure, shared environment. What’s more, we build in deep customization alongside a reliable offsite backup and disaster recovery plan, and achieve enhanced levels of isolation (i.e., your own network, security and gateways.
AISN has a 100% Compliance Guarantee, meaning that every one of our hosting solutions is designed with full compliance and multiple layers of security in mind. We have enterprise-grade, industrial strength security, which is to say layers of security extended across all our processes, our people, our procedures and our facilities – layers that are not offered by commodity hosting providers and most generalist hosts. We also offer managed security services to guard against penetration, including vulnerability testing, enterprise threat simulation and more.
Contact us if you would like more information. Remember. When it comes to security, don’t go at it alone.
Alishia DuBois is AISN’s marketing associate.