April 2020 | Anika Virgo

Trust – firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

It is almost instinctive how much of our daily life is built on trust: raising from our beds, trusting that our feet will hold us up, driving in a car trusting we’ll get to work safely, using our computers and trusting our data will be safe. The almost meteoric rise of technology has brought so many advantages: ease of transacting business, erasure of distances in communication and myriad improvements in health. The internet was foundational to these enhancements and continues to be bedrock on which all technological advances will stand.

But the foundation is showing cracks. It first started with viruses and worms which caused disruptions to systems. The technological community quickly banded together to provide a fix – anti virus. For each fix that was provided, the cracks started to evolve: bad actors who wanted to use the internet for nefarious deeds started adjusting to security controls. This launched a war which has largely played out within the shadows of the IT community (white hat / black hat). There have been periods where the skirmishes were exposed to the general public however it never appeared serious enough to shake the public’s trust. Until now.

News of ransomware attacks have become commonplace. These attacks have affected all industry verticals. Suddenly the public are now soldiers in a technological war with no end in sight. End users can no longer trust senders of emails, calls from government agencies or websites they visit. Every interaction should be now scrutinized and verified. Users not equipped to make these assessments have become the weak link through which bad actors can enter seemingly fortified networks. Companies can no longer depend only on technological solutions, anti virus and firewalls, to keep bad actors out. Each employee has to be undergo continuous training to keep up to date with the changing tactics used for breaching systems. However we are not without hope during this time. 

At SiRON, we are proud to be affiliated with Terry Cutler who has provided insights into security secrets and tools to keep data safe. Contact us today for more information.