{"id":1691,"date":"2017-11-07T17:58:30","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T16:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nicolacolucci.com\/?p=1691"},"modified":"2019-05-22T18:45:44","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:45:44","slug":"cyber-risk-the-threat-may-come-from-our-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nicolacolucci.com\/en\/2017\/11\/07\/cyber-risk-the-threat-may-come-from-our-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyber risk: the threat is inside our company"},"content":{"rendered":"

C<\/strong>omputer frauds, viruses, data and identity theft, misuse of credit cards, cyber attacks on our computers: these are some of the major threats that affect businesses all over the world on a daily basis, such as hospitals, multi-utilities, law and auditing firms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of these intrusions are coming from within the company and could even be caused by unfaithful employees.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Preventive and control measures, IT experts, cyber insurance: are the three strategies that a business should invest in nowadays.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Control your digital behaviour! This is the main message sent to entrepreneurs and risk managers by Hacktivity<\/a>, the International Forum on Digital Security that I recently attended in Budapest Hungary.<\/p>\n

Numerous experts and IT engineers gathered from all over the world to discuss how to protect businesses from daily computer scams.<\/p>\n

It has been agreed from the start, that European companies have proved to be very vulnerable to cyber intrusions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The above statement is confirmed by this research of 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

What stands out from the research, is that nowadays some Central European countries are affected more by cyber crime than others such as Denmark, Luxembourg, Israel, Cyprus, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Hungary<\/strong> has suffered the largest number of cyber attacks right after Turkey, closely followed by Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine, Slovenia, Austria and Croatia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Romania<\/strong>, Dacia’s production has recently been compromised by a violation of computing systems<\/a>, while in Poland<\/strong> the government has announced that dozens of companies and banks<\/a> have been attacked by hackers whose identity is still unknown.<\/p>\n

On the web, who can we really trust?<\/h2>\n

How often is it that in good faith and with imprudence<\/strong>, we download an update or anti-virus file from one of our favourite web-sites?<\/p>\n

Have we never received a suspicious friendship request<\/strong> on our social network platform?<\/p>\n

From all the emails received daily from well-know organisations (such as banks or web service portals, phone companies, online auctions portals, email providers and social networks) how many is sent by people that we actually know?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cybercrime can affect our PC and mobile devices in various forms. Our good faith and inexperience<\/strong> can result in failure to identify suspicious emails, notifications or contact requests.<\/p>\n

What is the common point of these attacks?<\/h2>\n

We can find plenty of detailed descriptions of today’s most common computer attacks on the web. The main problem with identifying a cyber attack is that we are often not aware where and\/or who they come from.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These intrusions can be carried out by criminals who are hundreds or even thousands of miles away from our office.<\/p>\n

However, we should also consider\u00a0that most of these threats are perpetrated by the staff working in our company.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As confirmed during the Budapest International Forum and by an IBM research of 2015<\/a>, the most affected sectors – Food, Manifacture, Financial – are exposed to threats from within the company.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Un<\/p>\n

How?<\/h2>\n

1.Unhappy and helpless human resources.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lack of familiarity\/experience in recognizing new web intrusions and how to react properly in the event of an attack to our IT systems means that employees, external collaborators and consultants are the most vulnerable groups within the business world.<\/p>\n

Our Human resources, as Deloitte says<\/a>, unknowingly leave themselves vulnerable to these cyber attacks, becoming the preferred target of unscrupulous hackers without them or their employer being aware of it in time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.Unfaithful employee.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most surprising and alarming issue is that these attacks can also be voluntarily committed by the employees of the company.<\/p>\n

This is the result of a recent study<\/a> by the English Forensic Association.<\/p>\n

Criminal behaviour of unsatisfied employees, often engaged by the competition<\/strong>, exposes the employer to very serious financial consequences, such as:<\/p>\n