October was a busy month on all fronts here at BH Consulting. In this blog, we’re rounding up some of the main events we were involved in during European Cybersecurity Month.

Since awareness campaigns are all about getting people thinking about a particular subject, we thought: what better way than a cybersecurity and privacy-themed crossword? Every working day in October, we posted a crossword clue on our social media channels of LinkedIn and Twitter.

Everyone who sent us a correct entry was automatically entered into the draw to win a JBL Charge 4 Bluetooth speaker. Our winner has, appropriately, asked us not to identify them; but we can confirm that the prize is on its way to them

How not to fall foul of fraud

Keeping with awareness raising, we began the month with a blog that took its cue from the theme of this year’s European Cybersecurity Month campaign. Overall, the aim is to highlight good cyber hygiene and security practice. In 2020, many cybercriminals exploited the Coronavirus pandemic to launch phishing campaigns and other online financial frauds.

So our blog focused on tips to avoid these scams that can come disguised as official-looking emails. This an extremely common tactic because it’s so effective. Many people don’t exercise due caution when opening emails, and criminals exploit this lack of knowledge or inattention.

The post also highlighted the importance of using strong passwords and not repeating them across multiple websites or online services. We shared an infographic which showed a sliding scale of how easy or hard a password is to crack, depending on how long it is and how many different characters is contains.

Ransomware risk is rising, but we’ve got your back

During October, we also unveiled our new ransomware white paper, updated from the edition we first published in 2017. The guide builds on technical advice we included in the original version, with new details that take account of how ransomware attack tactics have changed since then. For example, attackers don’t just stop victims from accessing their files; sometimes they make extortion demands by threatening to release the data online.

Another reason why we felt the time was right to update the paper was because of new working practices. With many more people now working from home because of Coronavirus restrictions, they’re potentially at greater risk from security threats. The protection they have on their home devices might not be as strong as the security systems they would have if they were working in the office, inside the company firewall. These factors all increase the chances of an attacker being able to successfully infect a victim’s device or spread to others. The 16-page white paper is free to download and share.

Staying with the theme of awareness, we also published a security assurance checklist. You can use this as a high-level guide to understanding potential information security risks in your company, and then use it both as a way to prioritise actions and to measure progress as you make improvements. You can download it from our dedicated white paper section on our site.

At the end of the month, we hosted an exclusive customer webinar that featured our CEO Brian Honan and COO Valerie Lyons who gave an overview of trends and threats in both cybersecurity and the area of digital privacy. Brian and Valerie looked at how to guide a company through the current cyber and digital ethics and privacy risk landscape, sharing their experience about how to mitigate the risks and defend against potential threats.

Join the team: we’re hiring

We are expanding our team with two roles, in our cybersecurity and data protection divisions. We are now seeking an experienced senior consultant to head up our cybersecurity practice. This appointment comes on the back of strong growth for our business over the past two years. Our preferred candidate will have at least 10 years’ background in cyber risk roles, with excellent leadership skills. For a more detailed description of the roles and responsibilities, and links to apply, visit this page.

The second appointment will add to our growing group of data protection consultants, augmenting our DPO-as-a-service team. This post will involve working with our clients to carry out data protection impact assessments, design and respond to subject access requests, and advise them on issues like interpreting legislation and applying controls to help them become compliant. We are looking to fill the post immediately, so anyone interested can find out more at this link. We are accepting applications for both roles directly by email to hr@bhconsulting.ie.

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