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Klaro Cards gets involved in cybersecurity
News from a recent conference, and a couple of tools as a gift
Cybersecurity is a system in which every part has to play its role perfectly.
Researchers move the technology forward. Software builds lines of defence. IT people step in before and after every attack. And then there is everybody else, and their digital hygiene.
That ought to be one of the first barriers. And yet what we see inside companies leaves little room for doubt: digital hygiene is chaotic, and usually put off. In the worst cases it does not exist at all — despite cybersecurity efforts elsewhere that sometimes run into astronomical sums.
Raising awareness of good digital hygiene is like learning to brush your teeth. It does not prevent every cavity, but it cuts the risk drastically. We all lived through it during Covid: simple actions keep the health system from being overwhelmed.
Klaro Cards had the opportunity to give a talk on cybersecurity at a conference in Namur, to remind companies of a few essentials. They need to:
- assess their tolerance to risk;
- identify their points of connection with the outside world;
- allocate the effort of protecting themselves in proportion to the risk they estimate.
We went at those subjects with a few simple questions and examples:
What am I prepared to lose?
Am I prepared to lose a given sum of money in a cybersecurity incident, or would I rather invest that sum in guarding against it?
What does a halt to my business cost? For 10 days? And restarting it? Who is in contact with people outside the company? Among them, who is in contact with the FROC (see below)? Can I use a credit card with an extravagant ceiling for day-to-day e-commerce?
Helping companies identify their FROC is worth doing, if it keeps them from losing it. The FROC is the value to be protected:
- Financial: cash, bank accounts, fixed assets…
- Reputation: on social networks, in the press, on your website…
- Operational: continuity, equipment, personal data…
- Compliance: contracts, agreements, patents…
Some very concrete digital-hygiene measures let you cast a wide net over the threats that are either very likely or very damaging. Among them: phishing awareness, regular updates, 2FA, and the quality of passwords.
To contribute to the effort, Klaro Cards is making two tools available:
- The first is a light-hearted awareness and assessment tool. It gathers a dozen personal digital-hygiene habits that anyone can read and sort into "I always do this", "I never do this" and "I sometimes do this". We would like to improve it in future; your feedback is welcome:
https://app.klarify.it/x/hygiene-numerique/boards/evaluation
- The second is aimed as much at a company's staff as at cybersecurity professionals. We have digitised the CCB's "Cyberfundamentals" to make an effective tool for assessment and for following an action plan: