Cyber security expert Andy Hague has said companies need to understand what they ve got and protect it ahead of his appearance at a breakfast event on the subject1. Hague, managing director of Manchester-based security firm Secarma, says the biggest problem is that too many firms are complacent.
It s a great example of not appreciating what you ve got and protecting it, he says.
Most companies still don t think it will happen to them; that just because they don t hold any customer credit card details they aren t a target.
What they don t realise is that any aspect of your data can be monetised by an attacker.
Cyber security and the growing FinTech sector will be the subject of a BusinessCloud business breakfast in Manchester on November 2. Sign up for the event here.2
Tackling it is now a top priority of UK businesses as most have already fallen victim to an attack. As the criminals become more sophisticated, that figure is only going to rise.
Although most breaches won t be on the scale experienced by Mossask Fonseca the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers hack3 the case served to highlight the clear and present danger posed by cyber attackers. Given the rash of high profile attacks it s staggering that the vast majority of breaches are caused by human error, highlighting that ignorance is acting as an open invite to the criminals. And all this at a time when the burgeoning financial technology sector known as FinTech, is going from strength-to-strength.
The UK is a magnet for innovative companies that use technology to make financial services more efficient. BusinessCloud s FinTech and cyber security breakfast, to be held on Wednesday 2nd November at the UKFast Auditorium, Manchester, will hear from some of the UK s most innovative FinTech firms and discuss the omnipresent danger of cyber security. UKFast-owned Secarma acquired Altrincham-based application security specialists Pentest Limited for an undisclosed sum in July4.
Pentest MD John Denneny, who spoke to BusinessCloud about ransomware recently5, will also speak at the event.
References
- ^ at a breakfast event on the subject (www.businesscloud.co.uk)
- ^ Sign up for the event here. (www.eventbrite.co.uk)
- ^ Mossask Fonseca the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers hack (www.businesscloud.co.uk)
- ^ acquired Altrincham-based application security specialists Pentest Limited for an undisclosed sum in July (www.businesscloud.co.uk)
- ^ who spoke to BusinessCloud about ransomware recently (www.businesscloud.co.uk)