#Focus bank software#

“They are not necessarily bad organisations, but because cyber threats are continuously evolving, they are putting themselves at risk.” “We see quite a lot of business reach a point where they think they can stop investing in cybersecurity,” says Aronashvili. What needs to be appreciated is that exercises like ethical hacking are not once-off activities. They can also step in to limit the damage and ensure business continuity if a cyberattack occurs. Where they find them, security is optimised. His was a now legendary act of ‘white hat’ or ethical hacking.īusinesses like CYE use ethical hacking, also known as ‘red teaming’, to probe organisational cybersecurity defences for weakness. If not for Marcus Hutchins, a 23-year-old hacker who found and flipped the worm’s kill switch, it could have been so much worse. Damage was estimated in the billions of US dollars. It used encryption to render the data it accessed unusable. Remember 2017’s WannaCry? It was a worldwide ransomware attack – an export from one of North Korea’s few thriving industries – which infiltrated computers running Microsoft operating systems.

#Focus bank software#

It’s therefore incumbent on the cybersecurity industry, and any companies using biometric data, to secure data and permissions and review their methods in order to remain ahead of a faceless and increasingly powerful enemy.įor the man on the street, keeping your device’s security software updated and using multi-factor authentication, from passwords to one-time pins and biometric information is your best form of defence today. In the army, that’s called a one-time risk because there’s no way back,” continued Aronashvili. Quantum computing will be able to break it. “Biometric protection is considered to be very complex. Once compromised, it is compromised forever. Old school usernames and passwords can simply be reset, but the same is not true of biometric data, which is unique. Quantum computing (QC) will initially be in the relatively safe hands of governments and large corporations like Google and Amazon, but ahead of it going mainstream, hackers will undoubtably be storing encrypted data collected today for cracking by QC tomorrow.Įven more sobering is the fact that QC will give attackers the power to hack your biometric signatures – from facial features and fingerprints to voice recognition profiles. As Aronashvili points out, those defending against cyberattacks have to be vigilant at every level of the organisation and of every form of attack, while attackers only need to exploit a single vulnerability in order to do untold damage. Unlike the Y2K bug that caught the world napping when it came to preparation, the cybersecurity industry is already working hard to develop post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum resistant ledgers (QRL) because the risks run so high. (Disclosure: Investec is a client of CYE). “Encryption that we consider unbreakable today will be easily broken with quantum computing in future,” says Reuven Aronashvili, CEO of CYE, an industry-leading cybersecurity platform, during a recent Investec Focus Talk. While such attacks may not be financially motivated, they can result in significant financial harm to companies who are increasingly reliant on the availability of systems distributed in the cloud. But reports of pro-Russian hackers using ‘wipers’ to permanently delete sensitive Ukrainian information, without asking for so much as a hryvnia, illustrates the growing versatility of cybercrime. Private hackers extorting money via ransomware or other forms of blackmail are top of mind for IT departments the world over. The motivation of attackers is also changing. Even the cryptography protecting your Bitcoin is at risk. That includes the numerical trickery protecting credit card details, intellectual property and government secrets. Within 10 to 20 years’ time, we will reach a level of computing power that will most likely be able decipher all encrypted data as it stands today. But encryption standards currently considered best-of-breed may no longer be a barrier to hackers using increasingly powerful processors in future. None is used more widely than data encryption. To be sure, bank accounts are still emptied through identity theft, and we still occasionally click on those malicious email links despite knowing better.Ĭybersecurity systems deploy several defences to thwart everything from ‘petty’ to nation state grade cyberattacks. The methods and motivations of cybercriminals are evolving. But as our digital footprints expand, and hackers upskill, that approach is becoming increasingly risky. It’s tempting to glaze over and trust that the technical experts will keep us safe.

The terms “cybercrime” and “cybersecurity” conjure up images of teens in hoodies and impenetrable lines of code.