Kaspersky reminds companies that corporate waste can be a cybercriminal’s gold mine – Back End News

Cybercriminals would dive into any available data they could get even if companies have already viewed it as garbage. Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky has identified the top three negligent junk that cybercriminals still find useful: work papers, envelopes, and digital storage media.

“It is said that you can learn a lot about a person or a company from the waste they throw away,” said Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky. “Cybercriminals know this very well and finding out that they are digging through corporate garbage shouldn’t be surprising.”

Using research from a printing company, Kaspersky said that “the average office worker prints up to 6,000 sheets of paper per year (25 per day) and about 3,720 sheets are considered waste ( 10 per day). Another research indicates that almost half of the documents printed in a typical office are thrown away within 24 hours.

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And this is where the problem lies. The unshredded discarded paper presents a wealth of business information that cybercriminals can use against a business or could give them a clue about the business network.

Kaspersky noted that in recent years, cybercriminals have increasingly resorted to Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks targeting corporate correspondence. He gives the example of a European division of a car manufacturer that lost more than $ 37 million to cybercriminals as a result of a bogus wire transfer instruction that an employee took as legitimate.

Flash drives, hard disk

Digital media can be a wealth of information, according to Kaspersky. The devices store contacts, emails, and other details that, when obtained by cybercriminals, could give them access to an employee’s local network that could lead to company data.

“Over 80% of all cyber incidents are caused by human error,” Yeo said. “From a cost perspective, a cybersecurity breach would set a small and medium-sized business down by about $ 101,000 and a business down by an average of $ 1,090,000 (according to Kaspersky statistics from last year). It is therefore up to us in the corporate sector, whatever the position in the company, to be aware that the security of the company depends directly on our behavior in the treatment of company data.

Below are some tips from Kaspersky on how to minimize or eliminate the use of office supplies for data storage and hopefully not be used by an attacker:

1. First, destroy all paper documents related to the company’s work before throwing them in the trash. This means all of them, not just those that contain personal data. Shred them, envelopes included.

2. Digital media (hard disks, USB keys) have no place in the trash. You must make them mechanically unusable and take them to an electronics recycling center. Use pliers to break disks and flash drives. For hard drives, use an electric drill or hammer. Remember that there is a flash drive in every phone and a hard drive in every computer. If you throw away any of them, first make sure their data is unreadable.

3. Before discarding any food delivery packages or bags, it is recommended that you tear up and destroy any labels with the name and address of the sender and recipient.

Besides the proper disposal of corporate waste, companies can also strengthen their cybersecurity by using technologies such as Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response Optimum (KEDRO), which offers simple defense in depth against complex and advanced threats at no cost. additional generals.

KEDRO’s automation features ensure incidents are dealt with quickly, and its streamlined root cause analysis helps reveal the true scope of the threat so you can act on it, all with one easy-to-use toolkit.

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