A difficult question to answer, in view of cyber espionages conducted by state sponsored foreign hackers to gain access to your business secrets on regular basis. UK intelligence agency GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) director Ian Lobban had asserted that the government in his country is targeted by nothing less than 70 sophisticated cyber espionage campaigns every month. “Business secrets are being looted on an “industrial scale”, he told the BBC.
While GCHQ launched campaign sometime ago in the belief that this was going to be matters relating to the defense sector alone, Lobban now confirms that any intellectual property is vulnerable and can be reaped by cyber criminals.
MI5’s (Military Intelligence, UK) head of cyber, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that “there are now three certainties in life: (1)Death, the most inevitable factor (2)Tax, that has to be paid, even after your death (by your successors) (3)Foreign surveillance on your system Even though neither MI5 nor GCHQ was willing to spill out the names of persons or the nations who may be blamed for such attacks, Lobban was emphatic that in most cases the attacks were state sponsored.
The MI5 cyber head, however, elucidated by stating that most hostile foreign states were interested in a company’s mergers and acquisitions activity, their joint venture intentions, and their strategic direction over the next few years – issues both lucrative and well worth an investigation. “Any organization masquerading sensitive or money-spinning data,” he added, was the target.
In order to protect yourself from cyber espionage, you could take the following steps.
Always remember that your security is in your own hands. Stay cautious and alert at all times and be on your look out because someone somewhere is trying to hack, while basic security practices mentioned above can protect you from most hacks.
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