On July 5, 2015, the Italian-based company The Hacking Team ironically found itself the victim of the most feared form of cyber crime—a major hack, the result of which was over 400 GB of internal information being released to the public. Everything from executive emails to customer invoices and even employee Twitter accounts was compromised, and The Hacking Team is still reeling. Ever since the company first came into existence, they have been surrounded by controversy, due to the fact that they create and sell hacking software to governments around the world so that those governments can spy on their citizens. The July 5th hack only made things worse for them by indicating that they had been selling to the Sudanese government, which they had previously promised to the United Nations was not true.
How Did the Hack Happen?
The hack was only made known when The Hacking Team’s Twitter account suddenly posted “Since we have nothing to hide, we’re publishing all our e-mails, files, and source code . . .”; the Tweet included links to the over 400 GB of information discussed earlier, including a link to how the hacker got access to The Hacking Team’s information. It turns out he used 2 zero-day exploits that he had found in Adobe products, one of which was Flash, a program that almost everyone uses on their computer.
What This Means for You
Despite who The Hacking Team is and what they have done, the hack should inspire even the most ethical businesses around the world to think about just how secure their information is. There are two main lessons to be learned from the events on July 5th:
- There are legal organizations out there that are specifically dedicated to hacking your information; and
- Even those organizations can be the victim of a hack.
While your internal information may not be unethical or implicate you in anything illegal, it could still be devastating if it fell into the wrong hands. Every individual and business has their right to privacy, and many dealings of your business should be kept within your company so that your marketing strategies, manufacturing processes, etc. don’t get copied and used by somebody else to put you out of business. If a company like The Hacking Team can get hacked, you can too.
Luckily, it’s easy to protect your most sensitive information if you take the proper precautions. When it comes to preventing your information from being compromised, you have to think about both physical and electronic security.
The Importance of Physical Security
Digital information takes up physical space, and that physical space needs to be secure so your information is protected. Any electronic information that isn’t stored on your computer is saved on a server—information like emails and anything done on the internet. If you keep your information hosted on servers in your building, then your server room must be kept locked, and access should be limited to only a select few people. Security cameras and motion sensors can assist with security, as does having an emergency plan set up in the event that something does go wrong.
The Importance of Digital Security
Digital security is of course also paramount because most hacks occur without the hacker ever needing to physically touch your server. Strong passwords are the first step toward building a good digital security system, as is providing limited access to your most sensitive information. Any transfer of data should be done securely, and having systems like an automatic logoff in place will lower the chances that someone can access your information remotely. Of course, encrypting all data that is either stored on the server or being transmitted is also very important.
Using a Security-Conscious Document Management System
The fact of the matter is that a lot of businesses don’t store their information on-site, and if you use a third-party service for document management or hosting services, then it is vital that you ensure they’re using the same security measures described above. Since the likelihood of a data breach at your company is increasing, you need to work with a company that is constantly implementing new security features to stay one step ahead of the hackers.
eFileCabinet Is the Best Document Management Service, Especially When It Comes to Security
Here at eFileCabinet, we’re constantly researching the newest and best ways to safely store our clients’ information. We work hard to ensure that we have the latest, up-to-date physical and digital security systems in place at all times, because if one of our client’s experiences a security breach, we are affected as well. We can keep you protected from people like The Hacking Team and from the hackers who attacked them. In the unlikely event that there is a breach, we have backup and emergency systems in place. We invite you to fill out the form on this page to get started with eFileCabinet and keep all of your most sensitive information safe.