Maitland Hyslop speaks to Sky News on the Stuxnet virus

DON’T BE COMPLACENT TO CYBER ATTACKS

Internet Services Company Internet Central is warning local businesses to take the threat of cyber attacks seriously as news was announced last week that UK Government has identified cyber attacks as one of the four biggest threats to UK security, along with war, terrorism and natural disaster. Cyber security encompasses cyber attacks against the UK, cyber terrorism, cyber crime and the spread of viruses and worms. It is difficult to differentiate between these sources because of the interrelationship between protagonists. This is why we must not be complacent.

Recent reports have highlighted that the UK's critical infrastructure - such as power grids and emergency services - face a "real and credible" threat of cyber attack, but Internet Central say it is also important that all businesses take effective measures to ensure a defence against assaults of this nature. Cyber attacks don't discriminate on the type of business they target and it is important that businesses don't become complacent and think this is just a 'big business' problem.

According to Internet Central spam is now circulating in its billions with a 500% increase on figures recorded at the start of 2009 and many businesses are seeing malicious e-mails increase month on month with local businesses saying that they had already seen "significant disruption" to their computer systems caused by internet "worms" - both those that had been deliberately targeted and others picked up accidentally. One local company experienced a spam storm receiving a million spam emails in one minute and paralysing their IT system leading them to contact Internet Central for help.

Internet Central MD Maitland Hyslop comments: "Although cyber crime is a threat to the UK, getting cyber security and protection right enables the UK's continuing economic prosperity. It's important to remember that by taking a few simple precautions, online risks needn't overshadow the huge benefits that the internet brings to businesses.

Most people think of firewalls when it comes to security, but what they don't realise is that the nature of threats has recently undergone a significant change and continues to do so. Businesses need to think of solutions that would adapt to changes in real-time and offer enhanced features currently unavailable with standard firewall solutions such as content filtering, and intrusion prevention. All of which help businesses to operate more efficiently. It is also important for businesses to think about the key requirement of resiliency as business continuity should be high in any company's list of IT priorities."