Avionics News August 2014 - 43

Even so, is cybercrime truly serious? And, are you and
and preferences, as well as employee information such
your business really at risk?
as payroll files, direct payroll account information, Social
The answer is yes, according to Chris Roberts,
Security numbers, home addresses, phone numbers, and
founder and chief technology officer of One World
work and personal email addresses. It also can include
Labs, a cybersecurity firm based in Denver, Colorado,
proprietary and sensitive business information such as
that provides predictive threat intelligence, security
financial records, marketing plans, product designs, and
assessment and penetration testing, along with
state, local and federal tax information."
enterprise security consulting.
"You might not think you have anything worth stealing,
HOW DO THEY GET IT?
but I have a different view, and I might use you to get to
How cybercriminals get their hands on this information
someone else," said Roberts, an expert on counter threat
often depends on the easiest route to it.
intelligence who has worked
"For the smaller locations,
with Fortune 500 companies,
it's physical access to electronic
as well as government agencies
assets like computers, mobile and
on cybersecurity issues. "You
portable devices, or other systems
become my man-in-the-middle to
that are typically not encrypted
which you take the blame."
or secured and contain a wealth
A June 2014 report by McAfee,
of information that could be
IT'S NOT GOING
a cybersecurity products and
used in an attack," Roberts said.
AWAY. ACCEPT THAT
services company, mentioned
"Testing systems would be another
the United States government
attack vector, those default
SECURITY HAS TO BE
"notified 3,000 companies in
passwords; vendor installed access
BUILT IN FROM THE
2013 that they had been hacked."
controls and the myriad of other
START FROM SCRATCH.
The report also said that in the
maintenance systems used within
United Kingdom, "93 percent of
most facilities are typically simple
large corporations and 87 percent
to exploit and attack.
of small businesses reported a
"For larger facilities, it can vary
cyberbreach in the past year, with a breach estimated to
from the human threat of rogue individuals to access
cost large companies as much as $1.4 million and small
controls to the facility, all the way to managing and
companies more than $100,000."
controlling the flow of data and protecting the critical
Most cybercrime incidents go unreported because
information. Local (hands on a keyboard) or remote
businesses don't want the bad press that goes along
(infecting your computer and controlling it from afar)
with it, which means the damage is likely much worse
are two easy ways to relieve targets of all their key and
than we think.
critical data, especially when nobody's watching the
antivirus logs, firewall logs, system logs, or even if the
WHAT CAN THEY STEAL?
individuals know where the damn things are."
Even small businesses hold and have access to an
enormous amount of private and potentially sensitive
HOW DO YOU PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS?
data.
In our ever-evolving, high-tech, always-connected
"All data has value to someone," according to the
digital world, keeping the bad guys out of our data often
Federal Communications Commision's Cybersecurity
feels daunting, time consuming, and frankly, outside the
Planning Guide. "Your business data may include
scope of our understanding. So what can we do?
customer data such as account records, transaction
"Educate yourself on the issues, become more aware
accountability and financial information, contact and
of the world around you and how it's changing," Roberts
address information, purchasing history, buying habits

STOP IGNORING
THE ISSUE;

Continued on following page

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Avionics News August 2014

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