Less than one hour to hack half of all UK firms

Hackers are learning new levels of sophistication and could break into the systems of over 50 per cent of UK firms in under an hour, warns one expert.

After recent incidents with  Sony, Walter Rossi of telecoms and IT firm Daisy Group claimed that hacking has proved to be a growing concern, stating further that most firms are unprepared and have insufficient protection in place.

Rossi commented:

“Most businesses’ firewalls are designed to withstand simple viruses and malware (software that is in many instances used by criminals to obtain valuable business information), but have little protection against the sophisticated methods used by hackers seeking to steal data or disrupt their operations.”

The more common techniques employed by hackers result in programmes paralysing business systems with an overload of traffic – known as Distributed Denial of Service – or by covertly acquiring data such as bank details or commercially sensitive information.

When a computer has been affected, hackers are able to access it remotely, with the victim often being part of the network, sharing viruses to locate and snare further targets.

With cyber criminals continually pursuing more advanced technology in order to carry out attacks on businesses, information security is a more pressing concern for firms now than at any other time. They have to match the activity of hackers by improving their own security, and the best way to achieve this is to open cyber security jobs to those with the ability to thwart breach attempts.