HAS OUR LOVE FOR CONSUMER TECHNOLOGIES MADE THIS THE EASIEST TIME FOR CYBERCRIMINALS TO HACK BUSINESSES?
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HAS OUR LOVE FOR CONSUMER TECHNOLOGIES MADE THIS THE EASIEST TIME FOR CYBERCRIMINALS TO HACK BUSINESSES?
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Ashraf Sheet, Regional Director, Middle East and Africa at Infoblox
Is it becoming easier for cybercriminals to access company data?
Ashraf Sheet, Regional Director, Middle East and Africa at Infoblox, looks at how companies can balance giving employees the freedom to use their devices in the workplace while ensuring the network remains secure.
We are in the age of the‘ office of the future’ – every company now battles it out to attract staff and clients by having the most fun office, with the newest gadgets and apps. This has seen countless consumer toys become‘ business critical equipment.’ But has our love for consumer technologies made this the easiest time for cybercriminals to hack businesses?
In a word, yes. At Infoblox, we recently conducted a Shadow IoT research report, entitled What is Lurking on Your Network, that found fitness trackers, smart TVs, virtual assistants and games consoles are increasingly becoming part of the office furniture. These devices open up a whole new myriad of ways cybercriminals can access company data. In the same report, it was found that over a third of companies in the US, UK and Germany( 35 %) reported more than 5,000 non-business devices connecting to their networks each day. This is essentially 5,000 non-business critical cybercrime risks.
What’ s the issue?
These devices and consumer apps often make their way on to company’ s networks without following the IT department’ s guidelines.
Nearly a quarter of employees from the US and UK that we surveyed did not know if their organisation had a security policy and out of those that did, 20 % of UK respondents admitted rarely or never following it.
And only one fifth of respondents in the US and UK said they followed it by the book.
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