The technology is definitely helpful; but it also has a rather ugly face. In this case, we can’t ignore any kind of possible problems that are caused by attacks cyber attacks. Whatever digital solutions we choose, we should make sure that we choose safe alternatives. In any case, hackers can be quite difficult to detect, because they choose hidden methods to attack their target. By any legal standard, cybercrime can be persecuted. It can be performed by external or internal individuals, even company owners themselves. Legal implications caused by cybercrime can be immense, because we will need to put money to the court proceeding even when the perpetrators have been caught. In many cases, minor inexpensive measures are good enough to deter most cases of cybercrime. Just by neglecting one detail, we could end up losing so much money. This is something that we need to avoid. In fact, it is possible for companies to get sued by consumers and clients, if the system isn’t secure enough. It means that cybercrime can like a sharp sword that slashes the company twice; first by causing direct damages to the system and second, by encouraging consumers and clients to sue the company for negligence.
We should be aware that cybercrime is inevitable, but it is possible for us to minimize the overall damages. As an example, we could implement proper patch management. We may need to deal with an ever-growing business requirement and this will increase the number of applications and software we need. The system will become more complex and this creates more opportunities for people to attack. When improving the system, we should make sure that there’s no unmanaged change. Software patches are released regularly and they must be properly validated to make our system more secure. It means that patches must be tested in a proper manner. We should understand the impact of business, speed of implementation and complexity of patches. There must be a proactive process to determine the needs of our organizations. Everything we add to the system must be monitored for full compliance.
We should also be able to minimize legal consequences of cybercrime by implementing proper logging. Automatic logging will record any suspicious and unauthorized activities. This can be used as a proof in the court to determine who is at fault. Companies need to focus on compliance and even if an attack has penetrated the system; we may be able to convince the jury that there’s no negligence in our part.
Logging will also allow us to understand how attacks are performed against our critical business assets. Logs can be used to determine the source of the attack and we will be able to close the hole to prevent future attacks. It would be helpful for the companies to explain that the source of the attack has been dealt with and similar attacks can be prevented or at least minimized. This should be able to allow us to minimize the overall legal consequences of cyber attacks.