Cybersecurity? Today more important than ever!

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Pic Source: Perseus Technologies

The number of attacks by cyber criminals on companies has increased significantly, especially in recent months. The risks that arise, especially during home office, and how risky the disposal of a smart light bulb alone can be, were vividly conveyed in our first “Cyber Morning” web conference. For those who were unable to attend, here are the most important statements.

As a highlight of this year’s ‘European Cyber Security Month’, Perseus hosted the online conference “Cyber Morning” in the last week of October. The more than 130 participants were treated to an extremely varied cyber morning – with presentations, insights and analyses from experts in the fields of cybercrime, data protection, incident management and cyber insurance.

Current cyber threat situation

At the very beginning, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Vahrenhorst from the LKA North Rhine-Westphalia, who is also responsible for cybersecurity prevention, gave us an impressive overview of the current hotspots of danger, the number of which is increasing more and more, especially due to advancing digitalization. Vahrenhorst makes it clear that even small everyday objects, such as the ill-considered disposal of a smart LED light bulb, can become a cybersecurity risk.

Companies must act in the event of data breaches

Afterwards Dr. Carlo Piltz shared insights about these legal aspects that need to be followed and implemented in the event of a successful cyber attack: If, for example, data falls into the hands of unauthorized third parties, the company must act and inform the relevant authorities – regardless of whether the data breach was intentional or unintentional. The security breaches do not have to occur within the company itself. Suppliers and other value-added partners can also become sources of risk.

Panel: The right emergency management

During our discussion panel, our guest speakers had a lively exchange on the important topics of emergency management, emergency prevention and the right cyber insurance coverage. The reason for all evil is often the lack of an emergency plan, according to experts such as FINLEX CEO Sebastian Klapper, Katja Eicher, auditor at VdS Schadenverhütung and Julian Krautwald from Perseus. Companies are often not sufficiently prepared for emergencies. Yet such an emergency plan is considered by many insurers to be a basic requirement for taking out a cyber policy.

“The two worst statements related to cybersecurity: 1. it doesn’t affect my company, and 2. we’ve always done it that way.”

Sebastian Klapper – Cyber Morning, 10/29/2020

Ransomware attack as live demonstration

According to a recent study on cybersecurity published by Perseus in October 2020, 80 percent of hacker attacks occur via e-mail, with phishing and ransomware attacks being the most common types of attack in 2020.

How exactly such an attack takes place, and what exactly happens during a cyberattack, Perseus Head of Incident Management, Julian Krautwald, demonstrated vividly with a live demonstration of a ransomware attack. In the next step, he analyzed how companies should best act in a cyber emergency and what tasks IT forensics takes on in an emergency.

Data protection and cybersecurity in the home office

Since the first Corona lockdown in mid-March 2020, one in two employees has been working at least partially remotely. The move to the remote work at that time, which was in some cases quite hasty, accelerated many companies digitalization strategy. What would have taken them five years under normal circumstances, needed to be implemented within weeks or months. Unfortunately, security measures to adequately protect the working environment at home from cyber attacks were often neglected at the time. Stratos Komotoglou, Business Leader Cyber Security at Microsoft, explained in our online conference what measures companies need to take to ensure data protection and cyber security in the home office – know-how that can be enormously helpful, especially during the new lockdown.

Risk landscape 2021: Threats are on the rise 

At the same time in another virtual room, Silvana Rößler provided an outlook into the future and presented the risk landscape 2021. The trend indicates that the danger from cyberattacks will continue to increase. In particular, more and more complex software solutions, cloud storage and non-transparent supply chains will cause the risk to grow in the coming months and years.

We would like to thank all participants and speakers and are already looking forward to the next “Cyber Morning”.