IT Blunders
(And what we can learn from them)
Every modern business relies on technology, here we discuss the biggest blunders
to hit businesses in modern times and the lessons we can learn.
Sometimes, things can
go wrong...
The biggest IT failures in recent history include things like ransomware attacks, IT outages and data leakages that have affected some of the biggest companies and millions of customers around the world. Software failures have wreaked havoc at banks, airlines and the NHS, doing billions of pounds of damage and devastating disruption. In this article, we discuss three types of IT disruption and provide guidance on how you can protect your business.
NHS Wales IT failure
One thing recent history teaches is that no organisation is immune from IT related problems. On the 25th January 2018, NHS Wales suffered a massive, widespread failure of their IT systems.
“I can’t do anything. I need this system for everything,” one GP said. At this point, you could be forgiven for thinking these issues were caused by a hack or ransomware attack. Instead, the issues that caused their IT woes were due to a problem related to their national firewall and not a cyber attack.
How can you protect your business?
To avoid truly devastating breaches or regulatory action for failing to comply with data protection and cyber security laws, organisations need to get the basics right. This means knowing what your vulnerabilities are and what needs to be done to address them.
Get a set of expert eyes on your IT systems and book an IT audit today.
Yahoo Phishing Attack
In September 2014, Yahoo announced it had been the victim of the biggest data breach in history. The attackers compromised the real names, email addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers of 500 million users. Then, in December 2016 it emerged that Yahoo was hit by an earlier attack in 2013 that stole the personal information of over 1 billion user accounts.
How were they hacked?
The FBI said the main elements of this devastating cyber attack began with a phishing email sent in early 2014 to a Yahoo company employee. The unverving part is that it takes only one person to click on a link and a company can become vulnerable.
How can you protect your business?
Unfortunately, phishing is just one of the hundreds of ways a business could be put at risk online. To learn more about protecting your business from phishing attacks, speak to one of our IT consultants or click here to learn what the main cyber security risks are for SMEs.
