As the new year begins the U.S. government is prepping for retaliation from Iran, with cyber attacks listed as a high probability. Many small and midsized businesses may not consider this as very high on the list of potential risks that could affect their business, but that assumption is a big mistake. Physical borders don’t really exist on the internet the way they do on a globe or a map. Economic and Political actions whether positive or negative tend to have ripple effects. Here are three possible ways this developing situation could impact your business and some actions to take.
First, any cyberattacks that occur will likely target large enterprises, infrastructure or entities related to the military industrial complex. Experts agree, that a head on conflict isn’t likely, but hackers look to smaller companies that are in any way related to the larger intended target. The use of social engineering to find friends, relatives or businesses connected to larger targets and is common practice for cyber criminals and once they find their way in to the smaller, less secure companies, they make their way from their to the intended target. These enterprise level companies also tend to collect large amounts of data, if breached exposes everyone connected to them (Target or Anthem breaches, for example).
Second, larger scale cyber attacks often have somewhat unintended consequences. For example, on many occasions, hackers have written malicious code to infect their intended targets, but since the internet is as open as it is, once that malicious code is released onto a network it has the potential of spreading globally and has in cases such as WannaCry and Petya viruses. It’s important to keep in mind that any virus outbreak anywhere in the world can spread to virtually anywhere else in the world and any size company can be infected by any other size company.
Third, there are other types of impact beyond the affect of even an indirect cyber attack that this could have on your business. For example, any type of attack, cyber or otherwise on infrastructure, could raise oil prices, supply chain costs, transportation costs, etc.
Don’t think that you can't be personally and professionally affected by this. It’s better to be safe than sorry as the old adage goes. Instead adopt a mindset of vigilance and awareness. Just as with most things in life, it’s better to be prepared and not have to need to be than to need to be prepared and not have done so. Be on the look out for suspicious links in email, try not to browse to unfamiliar websites. Don’t use the same password or even variations of the same password across multiple websites and accounts. Make sure your employees understand that they MUST report any unusual computer behavior to the right people in your company and IT/Security provider right away. Have a response plan.
If you want to learn more about what you can do to reduce the risk to you and your business, please feel free to contact me, ask questions or request a free security assessment on our Security Assessment Page
Marc Bartholomew
CEO of Integritechs
