Hackers Breach The Vatican— Is Nothing Sacred?
The short answer is NO.
No one is immune from cyberattacks.
A few months ago, the Vatican was breached, taking its websites offline. Their sites were inaccessible for hours. So yes, even the Holy See is a target for hackers.
Is Your Business Vulnerable?
You may think your business is not doing anything to provoke an attack, but you may be considered “low-hanging fruit” by some wannabe hacker who just purchased a Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS) kit on the Dark Web (DW).
You may not realize that no matter the size of your business, you have customer information in your systems that is considered valuable to a hacker. Names and addresses, credit card numbers, tax ID numbers, etc., all fetch premiums on the Dark Web.
Know Your Vulnerabilities Online
A vulnerability is a point of weakness cyber bad guys exploit to access your systems. They can use these shortcomings to cause damage and undermine data privacy. Common vulnerabilities include:
- Firewall Weaknesses
- Unpatched Operating Systems
- Network Misconfigurations
- Unpatched Third-party Software
- Weak Passwords
- Unencrypted Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
- Unverified access to systems
Not every vulnerability is exploitable, as attackers may not have enough public information to leverage the weakness. In addition, your existing security controls may be protecting the weakness, or the attacker may need authentication or local system access to target the vulnerability.
Still, vulnerabilities of any kind can put your business technology at risk.
What You Should Do—Now!
Take the time the time to look for vulnerabilities within your network, such as:
- Perform a network audit, closely looking at each system.
- Use network scans
- Review firewall logs
- Map out your technology and endpoints. You can’t protect it if you don’t know it needs security
- Update all software and hardware where possible
- Check the level of risk with each vulnerability, and find countermeasures to boost security
Big Budgets Don’t Necessarily Mean Less Risk
The Vatican had an $887 million budget, and undoubtedly, they spent some of that on cybersecurity. It was not enough. But don’t worry; the Holy See will rebound.
The Vatican will likely increase its IT budget, and purchase new, top-of-the-line security hardware and software, etc. After all—they have the money.
What About Your Business?
Do you have the same money and resilience to combat a cyberattack as the Vatican?
Don’t take any chances. Our IT experts can help you shore up your cybersecurity. Whatever your budget, there are steps we can take to ensure you’re ready to combat a cyberattack. Contact us for a free consultation.
XSolutions is an IT Services Provider serving New York (NY), New Jersey (NJ), and Connecticut (CT). We provide Managed IT Services | Managed IT Security | Backup & Disaster Recovery| Cloud Data Protection | Security Awareness Training. Call (845) 362-9675 for a free consultation.
