How secure is your business?

It’s almost impossible to run a business without the internet. But at what cost has automation come?

SA companies rarely targets of significant attacks.

In today’s era it’s almost impossible to run a business without the aid of a digital or internet portal.

In fact, technology has been so deeply integrated into business that there is no business function that cannot be automated.

To the credit of technology, businesses today are more efficient, faster and produce better products. But at what cost has automation come? Well, apart from the debate on whether machines are taking people’s jobs, there’s been a more direct threat in the form of cyber attacks.

A cyber attack is when an individual hacks into a digital system to seize control of some or all functions of the system. And, thanks to the internet, such an attack can be masterminded from anywhere in the world.

This is for three main reasons. First for financial gain in the form of fraud and internet scams; second corporate espionage to gather information for competitors or anti-pollution hackers blaming corporations for destroying the ozone layer.

And finally there are political hackers out to expose governments, such as Wiki Leaks.

But should South Africans be concerned about political or corporate espionage cyber attacks? I doubt it; South African businesses have rarely been the targets of such attacks.

But the question still remains, how it is possible for classified servers to get hacked? Shouldn’t there be security that prevents hacking?

Yes, there is – and it comes in the form of cyber security. Its function is to defend against hackers and keep them out.

It comes in different applications and levels of sophistication based on threat assessment.

For example, a military system that operates missiles will have sophisticated and potent security for obvious reasons, whereas a small business might only require an antivirus.

We are all familiar with the antivirus which usually comes preinstalled in computers; it’s meant to keep out viruses such as malware, which hackers use to penetrate our system.

Therefore do you need a sophisticated cyber security system? No.

All you require are secure servers with secure connections, plus a decent antivirus that continuously monitors and cleans your system of any possible threats.

However, it depends on the type of business.

A stock brokerage firm might require a bit more security than the usual antivirus.

Another factor to consider is your service provider for your intranet, Wi-Fi and web hosting, because if hackers can penetrate the source they can use that channel to enter your system.

Finally, there is the cost of cyber security which doesn’t come cheap – but then again, you can’t put a price on security.