GDPR comes into effect in May 2018, however making sure you are compliant can take some time. ICO Systems will be issuing monthly broadcasts outlining the actions that many businesses will need to take.
Last month we started with an overview of what GDPR is and how it has far reaching implications for every business, with no business being exempt regardless of size, industry or longevity. Review our previous blog to discover the facts.
GDPR switches the ownership of personal data from businesses to the individuals (to whom the data relates) and businesses will have to ensure they act responsibility with all personal data they collect, store, access and process.
Traditional Security is No Longer Enough
You don’t have to look far for horror stories about the impact cybercrime is having on SMEs.
A recent article from The Independent outlines data compiled by insurance company Zurich where 875,000 SMEs across the UK have been affected by a cyber-attack over the last 12 months, with firms in London worst affected. Of the companies hit, just over a fifth reported that it cost them more than £10,000 and one in 10 said that it had cost them more than £50,000.
The Financial Times reported in July that Reckitt, best known for Nurofen painkillers and Durex condoms, projected a 2 per cent sales drop for the quarter and a 1 percentage point fall in its full year growth rate, adding up to an estimated hit to sales of £110m.
Enterprise Grade Security is Affordable
When it comes to data security, firewalls are an obvious place to start. GDPR puts the onus on businesses to keep personal data safe and effective firewalling should be a central part of your strategy.
Widespread use of the internet in all its forms has opened up opportunities for cybercrime and data breaches leaving standard firewalls unable to do the job needed.
Creating multiple layers of protection is an effective way to keep your systems safe. Put simply, firewalls need to do more. The good news is that enterprise grade firewalls are now available at small business prices.
Enterprise firewalls now come with a suite of software solutions each providing their own layer of protection. Enterprise firewalls need to go beyond Intrusion Prevention, Reputation Enabled Defence (RED), URL Filtering, Spam Prevention, Gateway Antivirus, Application Control and Network Discovery.
In this feature, we are going to take a look at APT Blocker and what that offers small and medium sized businesses.
Making sure you create an enterprise-grade secure environment will have the duel outcome of making your data safe and your business GDPR compliant.
APT Blocker
Zero day attacks are those for which no software patch is available and no known virus signature exists. Identifying these threats is one of the hardest challenges as they can get past standard security and lay dormant. Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) are dangerous in that they learn your weaknesses. Microsoft have reported that the average time malware resides within the host environment before the breach is detected is 200 days so it’s important that your security measures are proactive.
APT Blockers focus on behaviour analysis to determine if a file is malicious. The blocker identifies and submits suspicious files to a cloud-based next generation sandbox where it analyses, emulates and executes the code to determine the threat level. All the time keeping the threat away from your own internal systems.
APT Blockers come into their own for scanning email attachments and file downloads in real time. Knowing email attachments have been checked for malicious code before they arrive in your inbox takes a huge area of responsibility away from the end user.
APT Blockers are one of the leading tools in protecting your systems and your data from malware, going much further than traditional antivirus software. If your firewall is not equipped with an APT Blocker then it should be on your GDPR compliance roadmap. Security threats are real and ever present, and the need for GDPR compliance is also an ideal opportunity to implement systems and procedures which mitigate risk and provide effective disaster recovery. Business who rely on standard firewalls and antivirus software alone are no longer protected and APT Blockers offer a greater defence against new instances of malware.
What’s next
In our next broadcast we will look at what can be done to prepare for when your security is breached and how you can implement Threat Detection and Response (TDR).
Who and what is ICO Systems?
ICO Systems is an Ipswich based IT services provider, offering IT support to businesses throughout Suffolk & East Anglia. We specialise in providing on-premise and cloud based IT infrastructure and security solutions that both improve productivity and offer protection against the ever increasing threat of Cyber-crime. We have close working partnerships with companies such as Microsoft and WatchGuard. We are one of the top ten largest UK resellers of Microsoft’s Cloud platform, Azure.
