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VP Head of Enterprise & Cyber Security EMEIA, Fujitsu

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Successfully led 47% Revenue & 149% Orders growth of the security business in the UK&I, over 2 years. Now responsible for developing and growing Fujitsu's Security business and operations in EMEIA.
May 3, 2017

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Symantec internet Security threat Report

Kitemark standard would be a progressive step towards strengthening IoT security

The recent Internet Security Threats Report from Symantec highlights that last year cyber attackers have been fishing for gold in all areas and frequently finding success, as seen by the sheer regularity of breach reports in 2016.

While malicious emails and ransomware continued to wreak havoc on businesses and consumers alike, the study again highlighted new threats coming into the spotlight thanks to the increase in usage of connected devices.

In an era where data is becoming the new currency, all personal and professional data needs to be properly protected – especially with GDPR regulations fast approaching.

As more businesses take advantage of the benefits the internet of things (IoT) can bring to their business, they also need to utilise technologies available to them such as machine learning to help analyse and help detect and improve weaknesses in a network and spot abnormal activity when it occurs.

We can expect various forms of attacks to continue to increase. There is no excuse not to be prepared.

As we continue to see the exponential growth of connected devices, we will continue to see security issues that we hadn’t even considered before, such as the Mirai botnet of 2016.

Lessons will clearly be learned such as avoiding hard coding IP addresses, use of default password, while many of the protocols designed for smart connected devices will have their own potential flaws and vulnerabilities which organisations will have to tackle.

Online Trust Alliance (OTA)

To help make securing internet-connected devices easier for businesses, the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) has produced a framework in IoT security, offering guidance on how to secure embedded devices.

This introduction of a kitemark standard for IoT devices is a progressive step towards ensuring safe practice is followed and that security of such devices against these types of hacks is stopped at source.

In short, we can expect various forms of attacks to continue to increase. With this knowledge there is no excuse not to be prepared.

Cybercriminals are entrepreneurial, well-sourced and motivated and Symantec’s report once again demonstrates that the threat of attack is a growing problem. Organisations and consumers need to be wary of attacks, as the damage could be far greater than just financial and reputational.

Organisations must now realise that they can no longer afford for cybersecurity not to be their number one priority.

 

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