Information technology drives business efficiency and productivity, and the digital economy is thriving as growing numbers of organisations are benefiting from the opportunities the Internet brings. However, cyber crime is increasingly easy to perpetrate, and the threats the modern organisation faces are intensifying.
Following on from my colleague, David Cole’s, article on information security news stories on this topic keep coming and the breadth of scope of application grows with every headline. There was the ransomware story that was lead item on news bulletins for days and lately it transpires another headliner, BA’s Disaster Recovery story, also appears to have roots in data corruption.
It is not for me to heap further woes on the NHS and recent news has to be taken in the context of the immense size and complexity of that organisation. The WannaCry attack has hit around 200,000 computers globally and covered organisations as diverse as Renault / Nissan and Deutsche Bahn, companies under a lot less scrutiny for how they spend their money than our National Health Service provider.
The NHS hit the headlines this weekend due to an extensive cyber-attack that caused many services to come to a standstill. You can’t help but reflect how such an attack could impact your own organisation. Are there systems in place to ensure that this won’t happen and if it does what’s the business continuity plan? How will your customers, suppliers and staff be affected? And by no means least what is the damage to your reputation and bottom line?
