Following on last month's article which outlined some of the recent cyber breaches which have affected Canada it is important to note that the topic is not forgotten in the rush to move on to other business matters.
The industry has declared October as a specific month to look in more detail at the state of cyber security and what companies might be doing about it. The real challenge is that the focus from official sources tends to be on the big players in data capture especially those who control financial data, credit information, health information and insurance data.
This focus can leave the smaller organization feeling that their issues are either forgotten or not seen to be important. Of course to any sized organization incurring some sort of data breach, record loss or hack will be a challenge which takes up resources better spent in other ways. Once a cyber security issue arises the panic sets in and it means throwing every thing you can find at the problem to deal with mitigating any losses and regaining customer and supplier comfort that you are a secure entity to interact with. This kind of catch up effort is costly but unfortunately something which must be undertaken if problems arise.
Of course being able to put good IT security practices into place, having a disciplined offsite back up strategy and secure structures in place can go a long way in making sure any event you experience is minimized and perhaps becomes a non issue.
In a lead article IT World Canada offers some scary examples of how businesses and organizations big and small have been affected in the recent weeks and months. The range is dramatic and ends with the telling of how a relatively small Vegan restaurant in Halifax was impacted when they had their Facebook page hijacked.
I know that the repeated reporting of data breaches, problems with online communications and all of the other components of cyber security can bet depressing. It is such that to some extent we have all become overwhelmed and we wish we could just concentrate on business as usual. Unfortunately this topic is now an important part of business as usual and is something that IT professionals and managers must be prepared to make part of their daily concerns.
For other employees in organizations it is important the reminders, training and advisories become a regular part of their awareness as they can become a critical component of any protection plan.
Perhaps in October, Cyber Security Month, it would be worthwhile to put a special emphasis on disseminating information through out organizations so that everyone can take advantage of the special focus these weeks bring. There will be lots info available from all kinds of good sources. Take advantage of this focus and use it your benefit.