Carles Hilario Nov 16, 2016
This is what those responsible for the Washington Post thought, who did not bother to adequately protect the data of their 1.3 million users of the WORK section. Without much effort, a hacker got the usernames and passwords of all of them and access to all the information in his profiles.
Something similar must have been thought by those responsible for Tesco Bank, the banking subsidiary of the British supermarket chain, before some cybercriminals emptied the current accounts of 9,000 users. A joke that has cost the bank 3 million euros. Far more than it costs to protect the technology platforms used by any business.
Not to mention the spectacular attack that a few weeks ago ended with the data theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts (if each account were a person we would be talking about 6.76% of the world population). Data that very possibly ends up being sold to who knows who and bought by who knows what.
But these data thefts also occur on a small scale. Last March the police arrested a hacker who obtained the personal data of 16,000 people related to the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria using the credentials of a professor who died three years ago. The information was obtained by means of a small "script" camouflaged on the university's servers and which allowed identity theft in multiple administrative processes.
And what do you think? Are you aware of the problems your company could have if it were the victim of a cyberattack or massive data theft? What precautions do you take? And as a user? Do you know how to make the most of technology without exposing yourself unnecessarily?
The vulnerability of computer systems is no longer a problem for banks and large multinationals and now affects us all: managers of organizations and users. But at the same time there are also many measures we can take to minimize the risks and make ourselves unattractive in the eyes of hackers.
To talk about all this we have organized a free monographic conference on computer security on November 25 at the Infinitum Factory in Sabadell (Rambla de Iberia, 97). You can sign up through this form. The second edition of NaN-tic Bitz will begin at 9:00 a.m. with breakfast, and at 9:30 a.m. four exhibitions will start on the safe use of tablets and mobile phones; security mechanisms in ERPs such as Tryton; the safety culture related to human resources; and, finally, the infrastructure and the durability of the information. Starting at 11:30 a.m. we will organize a networking to be able to comment on the content of the exhibitions in a more informal way.
The presentations will be given by two professionals with extensive experience in the field of computer security: Genís Margarit, a telecommunications engineer with fifteen years of experience as a consultant and who combines his work with teaching at Pompeu Fabra University. He is also an instructor for Cisco, Microsoft, Google and Asterisk and a member of the Spanish Professional Privacy Association, European Privacy Seal Expert and Privacy by Design Ambassador.
The other two presentations will be made by Albert Cervera, a computer engineer with a postgraduate degree in financial management. He is also one of the founding partners of NaN-tic and the person in charge of the company's consulting area. And he is also one of the main facilitators of the Tryton developer community around the world.
