G Data’s Security Evangelist Eddy Willems will speak at this year’s Virus Bulletin Conference in Vancouver. Alongside Righard Zwienenberg, Chief Research Officer at Norman ASA, Willems will be explaining the security risks that companies often don’t even think about: the (un)intentional harm employees or suppliers with access to the business system may cause. The presentation, titled “Attacks from the inside”, will be held on Friday October 1st, at 2.30 pm (local time).
During this seminar, Willems will be focusing his attention on social networks and cloud computing. According to Willems, social networking sites provide a backdoor into business networks: “Every day social engineering attacks are becoming more sophisticated and more frequent, not only those phishing for information from regular users, but also those that target employees (or the friends of employees) of certain companies. Once the attackers have gained access to the business network, it is not usually difficult for them to reach and compromise the cloud, on which many companies are now relying.”
Willems thinks this problem will grow exponentially over the next years if companies do not take action to protect their data and educate their employees: “Curiosity and oblivion are traits that are part of human nature. This, combined with technological imperfections, is what every cybercriminal needs to be successful. This situation is not new, it has always been present. But what has changed, are the stakes. Now that every piece of information seems to be connected to every other piece of information through cloud technology and now that people all over the world are linked to each other through big online social networks, the risks have grown. Cybercriminals know this and are working harder than ever to monetise their opportunities. Companies need to be aware of the increased stakes and the growing number of attacks, so they can take proper precautions to protect their business,” says Willems.