How secure is your IT network?

We would never think of going to bed at night having left the front door unlocked and downstairs windows and curtains wide open.

Domestic security is important to us to ensure our space is not invaded. We have alarms, CCTV, motion sensors and a whole host of other security devices at our disposal.

And yet an increasing number of businesses across the UK fail to secure their most valuable assets – their networks and databases – leaving them vulnerable to hackers, able to find their way into important and sensitive information.

The 2014 Information Security Breaches Survey from the UK government and Price Water house Coopers found almost nine out of 10 large companies had experienced some form of security breach. They can be costly and potentially catastrophic to businesses.

High profile security breach es like the dating website Ashley Madison led to divorces, suicides, finan- cial ruin and sackings. But there are endless examples of data breaches involving local authorities, banks and lenders, individuals, businesses and even government security systems.

And as technology moves on, more and more devices are linked – thus increasing the opportunities for unscrupulous hackers to find a way into data.

The Internet of Things is the network of linked devices. It is predicted that by the endof the year 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide, up 30 per cent from 2015, reaching 20.8 bil- lion by 2020. Even fridges can be linked via modern smarthome technology.

In 2015, cybercrime and IT related security breaches cost the UK economy an estimated £27 billion–an increase of around 50 per cent in one year! It really isn’t a case of ‘if ’ our IT security is breached but ‘when’.

In April 2016 Kamarin Computers cycled around business parks in Peterborough with a rucksack full of tech to analyse the encryption used on business networks publicly available through wifi signals – and discovered that 67 per cent of wifi networks were unprotected. This approach has been termed Warbiking and was carried out in association with IT security giants SOPHOS. The kit used to test the unprotected networks is easily available for around £100.

We just want to raise business awareness of the challenges we all face and ensure that companies take all possible precautions to protect themselves by reviewing their IT security and educating staff about the threat.