In the past 12 months, some of the largest companies have been victimized by hackers, including Sony, Anthem, Home Depot and J.P. Morgan Chase.
In the case of Anthem, the nation’s second largest health insurer, legacy systems running outdated software and vulnerable application elements made it an attractive target for hackers. In the case of Sony, security was not taken seriously enough by company executives and the extent of the damage is still being determined.
Even when security breaches are discovered early, there is a cost to pay in terms of diminished customer trust that even free credit monitoring and identity protection services cannot easily overcome.
With more sensitive data being moved online for convenient access, hackers are becoming more attuned to the lucrative underground market for this information. In too many cases, the information is easy to take by exploiting some common security vulnerabilities such as:
- Network perimeters with little or no firewall protection
- Unpatched applications and operating systems
- Easy to guess or default passwords for firewalls, routers and switches
- Misconfigured network devices
- Wireless networks without WPA or WPA2 security enabled
- Desktop and notebook computers without drive encryption
- Web applications with weak access credentials
- Mobile devices with no, or easy to crack, passwords
- Poor, inappropriate, or missing database access privileges
- Unused TCP/IP ports that are left open
Protect your business
To prevent network and system intrusions, and possible loss of data, let the experts at DataLink perform a Security Risk Assessment of your IT environment, including a thorough review of your security policies and operational procedures. We’ll identify the gaps and help you fill them. Contact us today at 410.729.0440 or sales@DataLinkTech.com.
