Youve Been Hacked- Now What | North Jersey Small Business...

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Youve Been Hacked- Now What

Below are excerpts from an article in Entrepreneur Magazine (February edition) (http://mobileservices.texterity.com/entrepreneur/201302?folio=53&linkImageSrc=http%3A%2F %2Fe-cdn.dashdigital.com%2Fentrepreneur%2F201302%2Fdata%2Fimgpages%2Fmobile_tn2%2F0055_jvdwdt lm=1358835092000#pg54). It provides very useful information about maintaining your companys IT security. I suggest you get a copy, either online or at your library, and read it. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to cyber attack. Follow these steps to boost your companys security measures and thwart hackerskeeping yourself, your employees and your customers safe. By John Patrick Pullen In one notorious case, a bandit and his gang of cyber crooks compromised at least 53 Seattle-area small and medium-size businesses between 2008 and 2010, stealing enough data to cause $3 million in damages to the companies, their employees and their customers He became aware of the breach after noticing some unusual nancial transactions. It was very disconcerting for a small company to wonder whether there was some internal fraud or embezzlement happening, he told reporters Another Seattle company was hacked after its old laptops were stolen in an ofce break-in; about a month later, funds were siphoned out through fraudulent payroll accounts. A third victim had the identities of almost all its employees stolen when the hacker gang cracked the companys network security At least that company had a network security plan. Many others dont. According to a 2012 nationwide study of small businesses by digital security rm Symantec and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), 83 percent of small businesses have no formal cyber security plan, while 69 percent lack even an informal one. Meanwhile, 71 percent are dependent on the internet for daily operations, yet almost half believe data hacks are isolated incidents that wont have an impact on their business The best defense against cybercrime is making hackers sweat for their spoils. According to a Verizon study of data breaches in 2011, more than 80 percent of victims were targets of opportunitywhich means they did not protect their Wi-Fi systems with passwords and otherwise had poor security, if any
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Youve Been Hacked- Now What | North Jersey Small Business...

http://northjerseysmallbusinessforum.org/2013/03/12/youve-be...

at all. So make yourself a difcult target and keep your business secure with these six steps [Please read the article for more details on each of these topics] o Encrypt your data. o Secure your hardware. o Lock your network. o Install anti-malware and anti-virus protection. o Educate your employees. o Hire security. YOUVE BEEN HACKED. NOW WHAT? The warning signs are clear: If you see a huge money transfer going to an account in Russia or somewhere else where you dont do business (in one Seattle case, it was North Dakota), contact your bank immediately. The sooner you identify an incident, the more likely youll get your money back or minimize the damage, says Lance Spitzner, an instructor at Baltimores SANS Institute. If your companys computers are stolen or tampered with, call the local police. They may know of similar incidents, can investigate deeper and will contact the appropriate authorities, including the FBI and the Secret Service, which maintains an electronic crime task force. But most important, at the rst sign of any intrusion, change your passwords and keep an eye on your balances, from business funds to personal and employee accounts. Want to ght back? Try installing Mykonos web security software on your network. The programs from this San Francisco-based company aim to deceive the bad guys by reverse-hacking: sending criminals on wild goose chases with falsied information thats too attractive to ignore, bogging them down with misinformation until they give up and leave or literally slowing down their machines to the point that they become useless. STAY SMART. STAY SAFE. The internet overows with information on security. Try these free online resources to protect yourself from cyber threats. FCC Small Biz Cyber Planner 2.0 Since every business has different needs, this tool at FCC.gov/ (http://fcc.gov/) CyberPlanner lets companies select options that apply to their individual work ow, then spits out a custom-tailored action plan. Krebs on Security At KrebsonSecurity.com (http://krebsonsecurity.com/) former Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs blogs about developments in online crime, security updates and data breaches. Do not read this before bed; it will give you nightmares. OnGuardOnline
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Youve Been Hacked- Now What | North Jersey Small Business...

http://northjerseysmallbusinessforum.org/2013/03/12/youve-be...

OnGuardOnline.gov (http://onguardonline.gov/), an e-mail newsletter and website managed by the Federal Trade Commission, is a great resource for nding ways to stay safe. Explaining concepts in easy-to-understand terms, OnGuard has information tailored to small businesses. Ouch! Designed for the average computer user, this monthly SANS Institute e-newsletter (sign up at sans.org (http://sans.org/)) focuses on one threat per issue and gives steps people should take to protect themselves. Its an excellent employee awareness tool. This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 at 6:43 am and is led under Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to Youve Been Hacked- Now What

Tina Del Buono, PMAC says: March 12, 2013 at 8:52 am Great article, it is good to know what to do. Reply

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