Page 30 - PWM2023_MAY

TECHNOLOGY REPORT

Terminating cyber attacks

C the East Coast short of fuel. A few days later, at the start
yber-attacks are in the news again. First seen in
of June, the world’s largest meat processor, JBS, was also
1972 when a researcher working in the US on
attacked by ransomware and its operations in Australia,
Arpanet, a precursor to the internet, created a
With more people computer program called Creeper that could Canada and the US were halted.
working from home move across Arpanet’s network, it left a bread- While big corporations garner the most column
crumb trail wherever it went which read: ‘I’m
than ever before, the the creeper, catch me if you can’. inches, no business or organisation should think itself
immune. And for the world of print, there was the
threat from malicious The first UK legislation on the subject came in 1984 attack in March of this year on the MBA Group. The
hackers has increased following government action to comply with a Council company reported that it had been “impacted by a
exponentially, so how of Europe Convention. This provided for the free move- cyberattack, which caused some operational disruption
do you protect your ment of personal data between countries that had rati- to our systems and a small proportion of our client
fied the Convention with restrictions potentially being
business? placed on the movement of data outside that group. The work”. The firm’s operations were disrupted for more
Words by government of the day was concerned more about the than a week as a result of the attack.
The problem is acute according to the Cyber Security
Adam Bernstein convention’s impact on business than it was privacy. Breaches Survey 2021 from the Department of Digital,
Firms use data for a number of reasons – to market
themselves, to comply with obligations or monitor staff. Culture, Media & Sport. It found that 39% of businesses
However, the law places restrictions on corporate activi- were subjected to a cyberattack or breach in a 12-month
ties. period and 21% lost money, data or other assets.
But now the intrusions are more insidious. In May, Further, the average cost of the cyber security breaches
Colonial Pipeline – which operates a pipeline that car- these businesses experienced was estimated to be
ries around 3 million barrels of fuel a day between Texas £8,460. For medium and large firms combined, the
and New York – was the subject of a ransomware cyber- average cost was higher, at £13,400.
attack that shut its systems down for five days leaving So, what is a cyberattack? According to Dai Davis,

30 PrintWeek MENA May 2023 www.printweekmena.com