Right Networks News, Events and Innovation | September, 2021
Security Solutions, Auditing Haunts and the Truth About Data Protection
Where did the month of September go? It feels like just yesterday I was wrapping up our August articles, looking forward to the cooler weather and impending spooky season.
Well, that time is officially here. Spooky season is upon us, the temperature (and humidity) has dropped significantly for those of us in New England. The morning dew has transformed into mist, covering freshly fallen, crisped leaves. Apple picking is soon to be replaced with haunted mazes.
And now, sitting in front of my computer, I can’t help but connect that overwhelming macabre feeling from the outdoors to the business at hand. Because we can go back-and-forth all day about the existence of ghosts and Bigfoot—but there’s no argument to be had about whether or not black hat hackers exist.
A black hat hacker is “a hacker who violates the security of a system without the knowledge or consent of the owner or developer, as for personal profit or for the gratification of causing damage.”1
What’s even scarier than someone doing something just “for the gratification of causing damage”? When that someone is a someone you trust—and possibly even hired—at work.
In this post, we’ll be easin’ into spooky season with a wrap-up of advice about protecting your firm from external and internal threats. Keep reading to learn how you can bolster security company-wide (then get ready for even more security content in the weeks ahead.)
5 Essential, Secure Remote Work Technologies
Two years ago, no one thought that their regular commute would be a few steps across the kitchen. Things have changed. Whether your business’s reason for staying home is to promote work life balance, or because you went 100% remote at the height of COVID-19, by now … you and everyone you work with should be equipped with the basics.
Read this post for Gene Marks’ list of the five essential remote work technologies that help employees stay productive and secure while working from home.
A CPA Data Protection Nightmare
This one haunts me … and I’m not a CPA, nor a small business owner. Get the scoop on Susan (not her real name) and learn how her data was corrupted with one click, why her office was unable to work for weeks, and what caused her to get into this situation … even with seemingly good IT support. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The Security Threat Is Inside the House!
“As long as they made money, and as long as they seemed to make more money than analysts were expecting them to make, everybody said ‘Check mark, all good.'”
Bethany McLean, The Enron scandal: 20 years later, what’s changed?
It’s been 20 years since Enron. The financial scandal resulted in historic layoffs, utter chaos and in my opinion, one of the greatest dramatic-irony-breaking-the-third-wall examples in cinema.
Garth: Hey, how do you like the new wheels?
Dick Harper: Nice.
Garth: Hooked up with a new company. Great benefits.
Dick Harper: Yeah?
Garth: Yeah. They trade energy. It’s called Enron!
Fictional Garth didn’t have a clue what he was about to get himself into to! Jokes aside—Enron changed a lot of lives overnight. It wrecked retirement plans. People (albeit, bad people) were indicted. Laws were enacted to keep anything like Enron from ever happening again.
The 7th-largest-company’s demise wasn’t exactly any one person’s fault … or surprising. The scariest part of the scandal was the fact that many people had looked at the transparently unclear information and did nothing about it. (Yes, transparently unclear is an an oxymoron; and yes, it works in this context.)
Bethany McLean, one of Fortune’s financial reporters in 2001 and recent coauthor of “The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron“, knew that something looked off when starting to dig into Enron’s financials. But with so many signatures from lawyers, accountants across these records, doubt crept in. And she was a spectator–well outside of the corruption–but how many people working for Enron took Bethany’s path? How many employees saw something shady and doubted their own expertise?
“I thought, ‘These have been signed off on by the board of directors, by the accountants, by the lawyers.’ … Enron was a wake-up call to me about how compromised all parts of the system could be.”
Bethany McLean, The Enron scandal: 20 years later, what’s changed?
What Can We Learn From Enron?
Don’t look the other way, stay vigilant and use cloud hosting technology as a second (or third or fourth or fifth) pair of eyes. Read our post about tuning up your audit and assurance services today for more information.
