No organisation is immune to attempted cyber attacks, including cyber security specialists like boxxe. The team reveals what it takes to mitigate an attack and how they apply the same protective measures to every organisation they support.
1.6 million SMEs are hacked each year
That’s almost a quarter of the 5.7 million businesses around the country*. The reasons for hacking often remain unknown (common motives include selling data for profit and disrupting business) but the cost of ransomware attacks is well documented; often exceeding the cost of the systems and services needed to prevent any ongoing, serious consequences.
According to boxxe the worst case scenario for any business is the destruction of their network, and all the data that goes with it. In any given week boxxe’s SOC can be actively reacting to up to 1700 cyber alerts on behalf of their client teams.
What does an attempted hack look like?
- In July 2022 boxxe faced their own attack.
- Unusual digital log-in activity was registered across the business, highlighting the start of the attempt.
- boxxe’s “always on” cyber security SOC (Systems Operations Centre) dealt with the attack within four hours
How do you stop hackers from getting the upper hand?
First up, you need comprehensive oversight of your SOC so you can immediately identify when an attack has been launched. Next, you need people who can identify an attack and the first steps to stopping it – within the critical first 4 hours. Finally, you need a virtual ‘war room’ to handle the incident, lock down the hackers, and mitigate the attack within 24 hours.
Essentially you need to know who to call, who to get in the room, and who can make the swift, critical decisions needed to stop the attack and keep the business running as normal.
When boxxe first identified the attempted attack in July 2022, their extensive communications plan meant they were able to respond to the incident with speed and efficiency, allowing relevant stakeholders to openly discuss the issue and potential solutions.
As a result, they created their virtual war room within 30 minutes of the reported incident. With their experts all together in one space they could make the right decisions off the bat – enabling complete mitigation within 24 hours.
And that’s the best part: you can automate the response to a specific hacking attempt, making you even more secure as an organisation at the end of the incident.
The proof is in the pudding.
So what happens when you attempt to hack an expert? The attack gets picked up immediately, the right people get together within an hour, the issues are mitigated within four hours… And the only people who lose out are the hackers themselves.
All organisations will experience hacking, so one thing is for sure; the nation’s cyber security experts must be able to protect themselves effectively, so they can protect you too.
Steve Firth, Chief Information Security Officer, boxxe, “It might seem strange for an organisation to talk openly about when hackers attempt to target our company but we believe that in order for more people and businesses to be protected, everyone needs to know what happens behind the scenes and more importantly, what can be done about it.
“Hackers are evolving their techniques at a speed at which must not be ignored. Organisations need to be prepared, even if they already have a solution, because the threat escalates daily. boxxe are passionate about raising awareness of the need for organisations to regularly review their cyber security, helping them to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber threats 24/7/365.”
When organisations start having more open and honest conversations – when they lift the lid on the challenges that every organisation faces – we’ll have a much better chance of keeping everyone safe in the modern world.
