Is Your Software Up to Date?

September 19, 2017 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

At the heart of the Equifax breach was a bit of outdated software on the company’s systems that its administrators had missed. This obviously has led to a large-scale disaster, potentially exposing the identifying information of up to 143 million Americans.

But is your small business computer system updated? Many of the updates you receive from your software provider plug known holes in the security of your system. Hackers know about these holes, and search for systems that haven’t plugged them. If your system is out of date, you’re a bigger target than you were before your software provider exposed the hole, because now every hacker knows about it.

It turns out, not everyone is paying as much attention to cyber-security as they should. As with most parts of your security profile, cyber protection is all about managing risk. Sara Castellanos and Steven Norton write:

Though important, cybersecurity has not traditionally been the No. 1 priority for many enterprise CIOs. Cyber and information security were cited less by CIOs as a top priority for spending, according to an October 2016 report from Gartner Inc. Technology initiatives such as analytics, cloud services and infrastructure were cited as priorities more often.

The report surveyed about 2,600 CIOs across 93 countries representing about $9.4 trillion in revenue and public-sector budgets.

Mr. Pollard expects many more CIOs to make cybersecurity their top priority this year or next year as more companies begin to monetize data and realize how much of their company’s value is at stake in the security of their business.

“CIOs need to shift away from thinking about their environments as infrastructure and think of them as entities that process and store an incredibly valuable commodity,” he said.

Companies need to think about the business case for security and fraud investments in terms of where the greatest risks lie, similar to the way that cybercriminals are able to pinpoint firms’ biggest vulnerabilities, said Shuman Ghosemajumder, chief technology officer at Shape Security.

“Perhaps Equifax’s greatest failing was not that they didn’t patch the Struts vulnerability in time, but instead that they constructed an application where any such vulnerability … could expose such a sensitive data set,” he said.

Part of why companies may have a hard time taking steps to maximize their cybersecurity efforts may also be the way people are programmed to think about risk.

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

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