Cyber security is rarely out of the news these days.
With some companies paying £16m a year to protect themselves online, a recent study predicts four and a half million additional people will be needed by 2019 to identify cyber challenges.
Law firm, Moore Blatch, which specialises in the tech sector among others, and is a client of Carswell Gould’s, held a breakfast event in Richmond in April which I attended to learn about how businesses should be protecting themselves online.
The seminar centred around the what, why, who and when of cyber security breaches and the steps SMEs must take to stay safe.
We heard from David Emm, one of the UK’s leading experts on the topic of cyber security at Kaspersky Lab. He provided valuable insight into the key threats to SME businesses and described how 90% of cyber-attacks are completely random bots.
In 2015 alone, Kaspersky Lab discovered an astonishing 798,113,087 cyber-related attacks.
The vast majority of these came in the form of phishing, which is an attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
David explained how businesses need to recognise these threats, identify information they need to safeguard, and ensure they are under regular review to avoid cyber attacks.
After David, John Warchus, a partner at Moore Blatch and expert in commercial and technology law, spoke about the related legal aspects such as data protection and privacy.
John’s clients range from tech start-ups to multinationals and he emphasised the importance for SME’s to stay up-to-date with the ever-changing laws and regulation that play a pivotal role in protecting a business’ reputation.
His talk also focussed on how businesses need to make sure they have robust policies covering cyber security, data protection and IT and communications in place.
These policies should be communicated to employees who are made fully familiar with the rules and processes they are required to follow.
If you want to know more about how you can protect your business from this growing threat, contact Moore Blatch’s team of specialist solicitors: www.mooreblatch.com
If you would like to discuss how Carswell Gould could help, our team of experts are keen to chat. Fill in your details below and we'll be in touch shortly.
